BR  121  .T65 

Tigert,  Jno .  J.  1856-1906. 
The  Christianity  of  Christ 
and  His  apostles 


THE  CHRISTIANITY  OF  CHRIST 
AND  HIS  APOSTLES 


THE 


CHRISTIANITY  OF  CHRIST 
AND  HIS  APOSTLES 


HISTORICAL   STUDIES   OF    FUNDAMENTAL 
NEW  TESTAMENT  PROBLEMS 


BY 


/ 

JNO.  J.  TIGERT,  D.D.,  LL.D 

EDITOR   OF  THE   METHODIST   QUARTERLY   REVIEW 


"  Te  shall  k/tow  ike  truth,  and  the  truth  shall 
■makeyoufree."—}usvs  Christ 


Nashville,  Tenn.  ;  Dallas,  Tex. 

Publishing  House  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South 

Smith  &  Lamar,  Agents 

1905 


Copyright 

190s 

By  Smith  &  Lamar 


TO 

MARY,  HOLLAND,  AND  JOHN 


PREFACE 

The  prevailingly  negative  and  destructive  tend- 
encies and  results  of  much  current  theological 
criticism  have  begotten  not  ill-grounded  fears 
among  the  conservative,  and  some  grave  mis- 
givings as  to  their  actual  position  among  those 
liberals  who  are  not  wholly  given  over  to  be- 
lieve a  lie.  Meanwhile,  ordinary  mortals  must 
have  a  shelter  in  the  time  of  the  storm.  To 
throw  up  such  a  shelter  is  the  object  of  the  fol- 
lowing constructive  studies.  They  are  not 
polemical.  They  aim  to  be  historical.  They 
are  the  sober  reflections  of  one  who'  abides  in 
essential  orthodoxy  after  a  wide  range  of  read- 
ing that  has  tended,  more  or  less,  to  shake  the 
foundations.  The  author  trusts  that  he  has  an 
open  mind  for  truth.  He  believes  with  the 
Apostle  that  whatsoever  doth  make  m-anifest 
is  light.  The  summing  up  of  the  theological 
situation  which  he  was  compelled  to  make  for 
his  own  mental  and  religious  peace,  he  is  hope- 

(vii) 


viii  Preface 

ful  may  perform  a  like  office  for  those  who  are 
similarly  afflicted.  He  has  endeavored  to  pre- 
serve breadth  of  sympathy  with  Christian 
scholars  of  many  types;  but  to  that  breadth 
he  could  not  sacrifice  the  breath  of  life  which 
comes  from  Christ  alone.  In  these  pages,  he 
endeavors  to  give,  with  sincerity  and  calmness, 
his  reasons  for  continuing  to  believe  that  one  is 
his  Master,  even  Christ,  and  that  all  others  are 
but  brethren.  It  is  hoped  that  the  standpoint 
of  generous  and  sympathetic,  and  yet  con- 
vinced and  un fearing,  orthodoxy  from  which 
these  pages  are  written  will  not  prove  offensive 
to  those  who  are  of  another  mind,  and  who 
have  supplied  so  much  excellent  literature  of  a 
contrary  tendency  which  has  provoked,  as  he 
hopes,  a  wholesome  reaction  in  the  mind  of  the 
author.  If  this  little  book  shall  bring  repose  to 
inquiring  and  disquieted  spirits,  the  prayer  and 
purpose  of  its  writer  will  have  been  answered. 

JnO.  J.   TiGERT. 
Spring  Hill,  i  July^  ipoS* 


CONTENTS 


I 

PAGE 

The  Nature  of  the  Christian  Religion i 


II 

The  Vocation  of  Jesus  the  Proof  of  His  God-     67 

head 

Ill 

The  Foundation  of  Christendom 107 

IV 
Biblical  Criticism  and  the  Christian  Faith.  . .  151 

APPENDIX 

Pfleiderer's   "  Early   Christian   Conception 

OF  Christ  " 185 

Loisy's  "The  Gospel  and  the  Church " 196 

INDEXES 

Authors  Quoted  or  Referred  to 205 

Scripture  Passages  Quoted  or  Explained.  . . .  207 

(ix) 


I 

THE  NATURE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN 
RELIGION 


THE    NATURE    OF   THE    CHRISTIAN 
RELIGION 


On  the  surface  at  least  it  wears  a  surprising 
look  that,  at  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth 
Christian  century,  men  should  still  be  inquir- 
ing. What  is  Christianity?  That  millions  of 
humble  men  and  women  in  many  generations 
should  have  had  living  experience  of  its  real- 
ity and  worth  does  not  diminish  this  surprise 
at  the  present  attitude  of  the  scholars  and 
savants.  The  inquiry  might  seem  the  more 
reasonable,  or  the  less  surprising,  if  it  pro- 
ceeded only  from  the  scholars  of  alien  civiliza- 
tions, such  as  that  of  Japan  in  the  Far  East; 
which  are  but  now  beginning  to  be  penetrated 
by  the  spirit  and  institutions  of  Christendom, 
if  not  of  Christianity.  But  the  question  is 
started  at  the  centers  of  Christian  learning  and 
by   the   leaders   of   theological   thought.      At 

(3) 


The  Christianity  of  Christ 


Berlin  Professor  Harnack,  perhaps  the  fore- 
most Christian  historical  scholar  of  our  times, 
iwhose  dating  of  the  early  Christian  docu- 
ments^ and  history  of  the  later  Christian  dog- 
mas^ are  alike  in  their  scientific  exhaustiveness, 
has  published  the  brilliant  and  reverent  trea- 
tise^ that  has  been  turned  into  EngHsh  under 
the  title,  "What  is  Christianity?";  while  here 
in  America,  at  the  Union  Theological  Sem- 
inary in  New  York,  Professor  Adams  Brown 
has  paralleled  Herr  Harnack's  title  and  work 
in  a  volume^  profoundly  and  widely  learned,  if 
not  so  charming  and  sensitively  religious. 
Even  our  Roman  Catholic  friends  have  not 
remained  undisturbed  among  the  swift-rush- 
ing currents  of  the  day,  and  at  Paris  Alfred 
Loisy's  work^  divides  public  attention  with  the 

^  "Chronologic  der  altchristlichen  Literatur." 

^  "Dogmengeschichte." 

'  "Das   Wesen   des   Christentums." 

*  "The  Essence  of  Christianity." 

'*"The  Gospel  and  the  Church":  largely  a  reply  to 
Harnack,  but  containing  independent  views  that  Roman 
theologians  must  attend  to. 


And  His  Apostles 


new  Gallicanism  which  Premier  Combes  has 
precipitated  upon  Pius  X. 

Thus  ahke  in  CathoHc  and  in  Protestant  the- 
ology, at  BerHn,  Paris,  and  New  York,  the 
learned  representatives  of  three  of  the  foremost 
peoples  of  the  modern  world,  and  of  widely- 
different  schools  of  doctrine,  have  consented 
together  at  least  in  this,  that  they  think  it  nec- 
essary, at  the  present  stadium  of  man's  knowl- 
edge, to  set  forth  afresh,  according  to  the  light 
that  is  in  them,  the  essential  nature  of  the 
Christian  religion. 

These  are  not  superficial  men.  The  posts 
they  occupy,  as  well  as  the  works  they  have 
produced,  certify  that  they  are  penetrated  with 
a  vivid  sense  of  the  deepest  tendencies  and 
needs  of  the  time.  Upon  the  threadbare  theme 
of  the  modern  progress  in  physical  science  and 
mechanical  invention  I  need  not  dwell;  though 
the  very  mass  and  intricacy  of  the  facts  condi- 
tion the  intellectual  outlook  and  fix  the  far 
horizons  of  the  scientific  mind.    So  far  as  fluid 


The  Christianity  of  Christ 


physical  theory  has  begun  to  solidify  in  the 
dogmatic  materialism  of  a  Haeckel,®  or  the 
crudities  of  a  Goldwin  Smith/  it  is  perhaps 
enough  to  allow  it  to  break  and  fall  of.  its  own 
weight.  Scientific,  philosophical,  and  theolog- 
ical scholars  seem  fairly  agreed  in  this  judg- 
ment on  materialism.  A  deeper  conditioning 
of  the  intellect  of  modern  man,  and  therefore 
of  the  Christian  as  of  all  other  standpoints,  has 
issued  from  the  fresh,  full  fountains  of  ideal- 
istic philosophy.  Readers  of  RitschP  and 
Kaftan^  and  Hermann^^  and  Harnack^^ ;  of 
Fairbairn^^  and  the  Cairds,^^  and  an  almost 
countless  host  of  English,  Scottish,  and  Amer- 

'  "The  Riddle  of  the  World." 
'  "Guesses  at  the  Riddle  of  Existence." 
^  "Justification   and   Reconciliation." 
"  "The  Truth  of  the  Christian  Religion." 
'"  "The  Christian's  Communion  with  God." 
"  Works  mentioned  above, 

^-  "Philosophy  of  the  Christian  Religion" ;  "The  Place 
of  Christ  in  Modern  Theology." 

^^  "The  Evolution  of  Religion" ;  Discourses. 


And  His  Apostles 


ican  theologians,  know  that  Leibnitz  and  Kant 
and  Hegel  and  Lotze,  whatever  corrections  of 
their  conclusions  may  be  necessary,  have  not 
lived  in  vain.  Lastly,  Christian  philological 
and  historical  scholarship,  directed  alike  to  the 
Old  Testament  and  the  New,  but  especially  to 
the  former,  and  drawing  within  its  widespread 
net  the  ancient  civilizations  and  religions  of 
Babylon  and  Assyria/*  has  taken  us  to  the  ulti- 
mate sources  of  Semitic  religion,  so  far  as  they 
are  historically  explicable.  Surely,  then,  these 
are  grounds  enough  for  the  dissipation  of  the 
surprise  we  were  at  first  disposed  to  feel  at  the 
attitude  and  inquiries  of  Harnack  and  Brown 
and  Loisy,  even  if  taken  to  be  typical  of  the 
theological  situation  in  Germany  and  America 

"  Sayce,  in  numerous  works ;  Hilprecht,  "Explora- 
tions in  Bible  Lands  during  the  Nineteenth  Century"; 
McCurdy,  "History,  Prophecy,  and  the  Monuments"; 
Rogers,  "History  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria" ;  Hommel, 
"The  Ancient  Hebrew  Tradition";  Delitzsch,  "Babel 
und  Bibel,"  and  the  numerous  replies  to  the  latter. 


8  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

and  France.  We  may,  perhaps,  without  pre- 
sumption join  them  in  a  fresh  search  for  the 
innermost  essence  of  the  Christian  religion, — 
a  conception  of  it  that  shall  draw  the  purest 
and  best  minds  of  our  day,  bewildered  by  the 
clamor  of  many  voices  on  every  side,  to  become 
learners  in  the  school  of  Christ. 

I  do  not  deem  it  necessary  or  expedient  to 
enter  into  any  general  examination  of  the 
works  of  the  authors  to  whom  reference  is 
made  above, — though  their  books  are  brief, 
and  the  three  may  be  read  in  a  few  days, — or 
even  to  indicate  in  detail  the  grounds  on  which 
their  conclusions  have  proved  unsatisfactory. 
Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  books  have  been  in- 
terestedly and  sympathetically  read;  that  the 
reading  of  them  is,  in  part,  the  genesis, — at 
least  the  immediate  genesis, — of  the  present  es- 
say; and  that  those  who  may  be  curious  to 
measure  the  angle  of  my  divergence  from  such 
scholars,  at  whose  feet  I  should  gladly  sit  in 
many  things,  may  gather  their  materials  by  a 


And  His  Apostles 


comparison  of  the  processes  here  pursued  on 
a  small  scale,  and  the  results  here  reached,  with 
those  which  have  proved  unsatisfying.  Hav- 
ing had,  I  may  humbly  claim,  some  experience 
of  the  power  of  the  religion  of  Christ  from  my 
very  youth,  and  having  been  drawn  through 
many  years  by  personal  inclination,  as  well  as 
by  editorial  duty  and  my  vow  as  a  presbyter  in 
the  Church  of  God,  to  a  fairly  close  and  broad 
study  of  the  literature  of  the  issues  involved,^  ^ 
I  trust  I  may,  without  immodesty,  also  at- 
tempt to  answer  the  question.  What  is  Chris- 
tianity? and  to  declare  those  things  which  are 
most  surely  believed  in  the  Christian  commu- 
nity. 

I  shall  begin  with  a  definition :  with  the  ex- 
planation and  defense  of  the  several  elements 
of  this   definition,   or  historical  and  spiritual 

^■^Somewhat  elaborate  reviews  of  nearly  all  the 
books  mentioned  in  the  preceding  footnotes  will  be 
found  from  my  hand  in  the  pages  of  The  Methodist 
Quarterly  Review  for  the  last  ten  years. 


lo  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

conception,  of  the  Christian  rehgion,  the  rest 
of  this  chapter  will  be  occupied. 

Christianity  is  the  religion  of  God's  redeem- 
ing love,  manifested  in  the  Incarnate  life,  the 
Atoning  death,  and  the  glorious  Resurrection 
of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Founder  of  the  Kingdom 
of  God,  whose  citizens  are  become  sons  of  God 
by  the  power  of  his  Spirit,  and  brothers  of  all 
mankind. 

First  of  all,  Christianity  is  religion.  It  is 
not  theology;  though  there  is,  of  course,  a 
Christian  theology,  since  man  must  reflect  on 
his  religion  as  he  does  on  all  things  else  he  ex- 
periences. This  theology,  so  far  as  vital,  is  a 
product  of  the  religion,  and  a  hedge  round 
about  it;  it  is  not  the  root  from  which  the  re- 
ligion springs,  nor  the.  trellis  upon  which  this 
vine  of  God's  planting  grows.  At  its  best,  the- 
ology is  a  correct  human  science  of  divine 
things.  The  divine  things  are  permanent — 
nay  eternal,  and  hence  unchangeable.  With  a 
true  instinct  for  the  permanence  of  religion, 


And  His  Apostles  ii 

our  Roman  Catholic  friends  have  mistakenly 
transferred  its  unchangeability  to  its  dogmas — 
the  formulas  of  historical  origin  and  develop- 
ment which  undertake  to  measure  and  to  illu- 
mine, or  simply  to  protect  (perhaps  for  only  a 
given  age),  its  realities.  Dogmas,  like  all 
other  scientific  formulas  with  a  human  history, 
can  maintain  their  place  in  sound  thinking 
and  assured  conviction  only  by  maintaining  at 
the  same  time  a  consistent  place  in  the  sum 
total  of  known  realities ;  or,  at  least,  their  har- 
mony with  man's  whole  verifiable  conception 
of  the  world.  Through  nineteen  centuries 
Christianity  has  maintained  its  vital  touch  with 
human  life  and  interests  through  a  body  of 
progressing  and  enlarging  dogma,  ever  chang- 
ing through  the  external  apologetic  interest 
which  shapes  it,  and  yet  never  surrendering  the 
changeless  realities  of  religion  which  it  in- 
closes. The  core  of  dogma  is  divine.  Whether, 
at  the  beginning  of  this  twentieth  century,  the 
vastly  greater  and  more  complex  volume  of 


12  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

man's  knowledge  is  to  bring  at  last  a  fatal  and 
final  breach  with  that  divine  order  of  the  world 
for  which  Christianity  stands,  is  the  very  ques- 
tion W'hich  makes  the  modern  crisis.  That  the 
Christian  religion  has  so  far  fairly  met  the  new 
conditions  is  hardly  doubtful;  that  it  will  con- 
tinue to  meet  them,  it  is  the  effort  of  apologetic 
theologians  to  show :  in  any  case,  it  is  certain 
that  the  modern  mind  is  forever  done  with  an 
acknowledged  dualism  in  knowledge  and  ex- 
perience. The  dogma  must  live  its  life  in  the 
intellect  that  is  informed  with  all  other  knowl- 
edge. 

To  Christianity  belongs,  not  only  the  un- 
changeableness  of  religion,  but  also  the  un- 
changeableness  of  history.  This  religion  has 
been  mediated  to  humanity  by  facts.  Incarna- 
tion, Atonement,  Resurrection  appeal  to  us  as 
facts.  If  we  find  Cardinal  Newman^  ^  placing 
the  superiority  of  Romanism  to  Protestantism 

^"In  his  "Apologia  Pro  Vita  Sua"  and  elsewhere. 


And  His  Apostles  13 

in  its  objectivity  (and  so  Loisy),  it  is  because 
too  often  a  pseudo-Protestantism,  in  its  abuse 
of  the  right  of  private  judgment,  has  seemed  to 
suspend  reaHties,  both  of  the  rehgious  and  of 
the  historical  order, — the  facts  of  man's  re- 
Hgious  nature,  as  well  as  the  objective,  histor- 
ical facts  of  Christianity, — upon  the  fancies 
and  vagaries  of  personal  opinion  and  individ- 
ualistic self-assertion  and  conceit;  as  if  these 
facts  could  be  annihilated  by  disbelief  of  them, 
or  in  any  degree  altered  by  our  personal  atti- 
tude toward  them.  ''He  that  rejecteth  me  and 
receiveth  not  my  words  hath  one  that  judgeth 
him:  the  word  that  I  have  spoken,  the  same 
shall  judge  him  in  the  last  day."^^  The  foun- 
dation facts  of  Christianity  have  a  very  differ- 
ent objectivity  from  that  of  blinking  Madon- 
nas, utterly  meaningless  and  useless  even  in 
the  system  of  those  who  credit  them ;  and  from 
that  of  the  priestly  hocus-pocus  of  the  altar, 

^^John  xii.  48. 


i4  The  Clu'istianity  of  Christ 

which  by  the  distinction  of  substance  and  at- 
tributes made  by  a  false  reaHsm  is  withdrawn 
from  the  inspection  of  the  senses :  for  these 
Christian  facts  are  estabhshed,  either  by  the 
psychology  of  religious  experience,  old  as  the 
world  and  broad  as  humanity,  on  the  one  hand, 
or  on  the  basis  of  the  veracity  of  the  human 
senses  and  the  trustworthiness  of  the  ordinary 
canons  of  historical  testimony,  on  the  other. 
So  established,  they  are  immovable  and  un- 
changeable foundations,  possessed  of  an  ob- 
jectivity which  man  cannot  alter;  though,  ac- 
cording to  the  fixed  laws  of  human  probation, 
— probation  in  both  the  intellectual  and  the 
moral  sense, — they  have  to  make  themselves 
good  afresh,  like  all  other  knowledge,  in  the 
consciousness  of  each  new  generation. 

Nor  is  Christianity  philosophy,  though  capa- 
ble, since  truth  is  one,  of  philosophical  state- 
ment and  defense.  Nor  yet  is  it  ethics,  or  an 
art  of  right  living.  It  includes  this.  It  cannot 
be  divorced  from  righteousness.     But  deeper 


And  His  Apostles  15 

than  ethics,  as  back  of  theology  and  philoso- 
phy, is  religion.    And  what  is  Religion? 

Religion  is  the  communion  of  God  with  the 
human  spirit  issuing  in  a  life  whose  center  is 
this  communion;  or,  in  older  phrase,  the  life 
of  God  in  the  soul  and  life  of  man.  And  the 
Christian  religion  is  no  other  than  communion 
with  God,  mediated  by  Christ  and  his  Spirit. 

If  this  communion  is  a  delusion,  there  is  no 
religion;  and  with  the  denial  of  the  reality  of 
religion  goes  Christianity,  and  every  other  ac- 
cepted historical  manifestation  of  the  presence 
and  energy  of  God  in  human  life  and  history. 
This  communion  includes,  of  course,  two  ele- 
ments ;  and  but  two.  On  the  divine  side,  com- 
munion is  self-manifestation;  on  the  human 
side,  it  may  be  summed  up  in  one  comprehen- 
sive and  most  real  experience,  prayer,  which, 
in  its  widest  sense,  includes  worship  and  con- 
formity of  the  w^ill,  life,  and  nature  of  the 
worshiper  to  the  revealed  character  and  de- 
mand of  the  worshipful  God. 


1 6  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

Without  tarrying  to  mark  finer  distinctions, 
I  may  notice  that  the  experience  of  normal 
men  with  great  uniformity  develops  the  knowl- 
edge of  self,  of  the  world,  and  of  God.  These 
are  of  tremendous  persistence  and  great  uni- 
versality. The  permanent  disturbance  of  nor- 
mal apprehension  in  either  of  the  three  spheres, 
or  the  commingling  of  the  spheres  themselves, 
may  be  accepted  as  a  mark  of  insanity.  Only 
the  fool  says  in  his  heart.  There  is  no  God. 
The  experiences  of  self  and  the  world,  as  well 
as  the  self-revelation  of  God,  carry  the  mind 
in  its  earliest  life  through  to  the  knowledge  of 
God,  which  is  rarely  abandoned,  but  grows 
with  our  growth  and  strengthens  with  our 
strength.  The  conviction,  like  certain  vital 
functions  in  the  body,  lies  deeper  than  our 
volition  or  consciousness — and  for  the  same 
reason.  When,  especially  in  the  master  spirits 
of  the  race,  the  consciousness  and  dominance 
of  self  and  the  world  are  reduced  to  the  vanish- 
ing point,  the  consciousness  and  power  of  God 


And  His  Apostles  17 

are  in  possession  of  the  field.  By  every  token, 
the  Founder  of  Christianity,  alone  among  men, 
perfectly  suppressed  self  and  the  world,  and 
lived  a  life  of  unbroken  communion  with  God 
and  of  undisturbed  love  and  loyalty  to  him. 
For  most  men,  self  and  the  world  are  nearer 
and  more  noisy;  but  God,  if  deeper  and  appar- 
ently more  silent  amid  the  clamor  of  the  voices 
of  the  flesh  and  of  the  world,  is  more  persist- 
ent; speaks  often  and  powerfully  out  of  the 
silences  when  the  other  voices  are  hushed,  or 
out  of  the  bitter  experiences  that  reveal  the 
nothingness  of  self  and  the  world;  and  he  is 
certainly  the  only  satisfying  portion  of  man's 
inmost  nature.  Fellowship  with  God  was  the 
ancient  keynote  of  Hebrew  religion  that  in 
many    Psalms,^ ^    for    example,    contains    the 

"  Psalms  xvi,,  xHx.,  Ixxiii.,  cxxxix. :  cf.  Kennedy'3 
"St.  Paul's  Conceptions  of  the  Last  Things."  "Im- 
mortality is  the  corollary  of  religion.  If  there  be  reli- 
gion, i.  e.,  if  God  be,  there  is  immortality,  not  of  the 
soul,  but  of  the  whole  personal  being  of  man.  Ps.  xvi. 
9." — A.  B.  Davidson,  Job,  p.  296. 

2 


iS  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

promise  of  immortality  and  heralds  the  victory 
over  death  and  the  grave  proclaimed  by  Christ 
and  Paul.  In  truth  the  so-called  consciousness 
of  God  is  only  God  revealing  himself  in  the 
consciousness.  The  reality  of  communion 
with  God,  and  of  his  self-revelation,  is  every- 
where assumed  in  the  New  Testament.  "Flesh 
and  blood  hath  not  revealed  it  unto  thee,  but 
my  Father  which  is  in  heaven,"^^  said  Jesus  to 
Peter  after  his  great  confession  in  Cesarea 
Philippi.  Though  Jesus  himself  had  been  for 
long  the  daily  associate  and  intimate  teacher  of 
his  disciple,  the  central  truth  of  Christianity, 
upon  which  as  possessed  by  persons  Jesus  pur- 
posed to  build  his  Church,  had  come  as  an  in- 
Avard  divine  revelation  and  conviction  to  Peter : 
into  the  heart  of  the  Rock  Apostle  the  Divine 
Father  whispered  the  secret  of  his  Son's  nature 
and  person. 

This  self-revelation  of   God  is  no  peculiar 

'*Matt.  xvi.  17. 


And  His  Apostles  19 

privilege  of  apostle  or  prophet :  rather  apostles 
and  prophets,  being  heirs  of  the  heritage  in  an 
eminent  degree  and  the  earliest  recipients  of 
the  experience,  have  made  the  initial  and  nor- 
mative record  in  the  New  Testament  which  the 
experience  of  later  Christians  reproduces  ever 
new  and  powerful  in  heart  and  life.^^  ''Eye 
hath  not  seen  nor  ear  heard,  neither  have  en- 
tered into  the  heart  of  man,  the  things  which 
God  hath  prepared  for  them  that  love  him. 
But  God  hath  revealed  them  unto  us  by  his 
Spirit,  for  the  Spirit  searcheth  all  things,  yea 
the  deep  things  of  God/'^^  That  spiritual  dis- 
cernment of  the  deep  things  of  God  can  come 
only  by  divine  self-manifestation  is  clear,  "For 
what  man  knoweth  the  things  of  a  man  save 

'^  "The  Bible  itself  is  an  expression  of  experience. 
If  this  experience  had  not  continued,  the  Bible  would 
have  become  only  the  record  of  an  ancient  and  forgotten 
life,  powerless  to  preserve  Christianity  In  the  world." — 
Dr.W.  N.  Clarke,  "Outline  of  Christian  Theology,"  p.  18. 

"  I  Cor.  ii.  9,  10. 


20  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

the  spirit  of  man  which  is  in  him  ?  Even  so  the 
things  of  God  knoweth  no  man,  but  the  Spirit 
of  God."^^  Hence  the  spiritual  man  judges  all 
these  things,  while  he  himself  is  rightly  not 
amenable  to  the  judgment  of  those  who  know 
them  not.  John  Locke  tells  us  the  story  of  the 
man  blind  from  birth  to  whom  "red"  seemed 
like  the  sound  of  a  trumpet.  Destitute  of  the 
sense  of  sight  he  must  express  himself  in  the 
language  of  hearing:  so  foreign  is  the  lan- 
guage of  heaven  to  the  strangers  of  earth. 
Even  the  Christ  of  history  is  one  with  the 
Christ  of  experience,  the  latter  carrying  us  in 
our  personal  consciousness  to  the  Divine  Per- 
son and  redemptive  power  of  the  former,  since 
no  man  can  say  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ  but  by 
the  Holy  Ghost.  Every  Sunday  the  Chris- 
tian presbyter  dismisses  the  congregation  of 
Christ's  people  with  a  challenge  to  the  present 
reality  of  a  living  experience  springing  from 

"i  Cor.  ii.  II. 


And  His  Apostles  21 

the  Persons  of  the  Trinity  themselves :  *'The 
grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  love 
of  God,  and  the  communion  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
be  with  you  all."^^  Is  it  true,  or  is  it  not?  If 
it  is  true,  Father,  Son,  and  Comforter,  accord- 
ing to  the  promise  of  Jesus  Christ,  reside  in 
every  Christian  breast;  the  high  and  lofty  in- 
habitant of  eternity,  according  to  the  older  He- 
brew conception,  dwells  with  him  that  is  of  a 
humble  and  contrite  spirit. 

Thus  it  is  evident  that  our  ordinary  doctrine 
of  the  witness  of  the  Spirit  is  too  narrow.  The 
Spirit  witnesses  not  only  to  personal  accept- 
ance and  the  forgiveness  of  sins  and  the  adop- 
tion of  sons,  but  also  to  the  fundamental  re- 
alities of  the  Christian  religion, — the  love  of 
the  Father,  the  mediation  of  the  Son,  his  own 
indwelling  and  illumination, — which  are  bound 
up  with  forgiveness  as  one  whole.  It  is  in  this 
point  of  view  that  it  becomes  evident  in  what 

^'2  Cor.  xiii.  14. 


22  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

sense  the  ''forgiveness  of  sins"  is  the  heart  of 
Christianity  as  a  personal  experience  and  may 
be  taken,  as  it  sometimes  is,  as  the  whole  of 
the  gospel. 

Unitarianism  appears  a  simplification  of 
Christianity  and  an  elimination  of  Trinitarian 
mysteries.  As  such,  it  should  contribute 
mightily  to  the  universal  extension  of  the  gos- 
pel. But  history  belies  this  expectation.  It  is 
agreed  by  the  freest  and  most  rationalistic  his- 
torians of  dogma  and  of  the  Church  that  the 
triumph  of  Arianism  in  the  fourth  century 
would  have  been  the  extinction  of  Christianity ; 
Socinianism  exhibited  no  fructifying  power; 
and  modern  Unitarianism  is  a  corpse  of  theo- 
logical thought  so  dead  that  it  savors  of  disre- 
spect to  kick  it.  "Everything  on  which  Atha- 
nasius  staked  his  life,"  says  Harnack,  "is  de- 
scribed in  the  one  sentence,  God  himself  has 
entered  into  humanity/'  Have  we  not  here  the 
secret  of  the  universal  failure  of  the  Unitarian 
conception  of  Christianity?     If  God  did  not 


And  His  Apostles  23 

draw  nigh  to  man  in  Jesus  Christ,  the  raison 
d'etre  of  Christianity  is  canceled,  and  the  Chris- 
tian spirit  rejects  the  Unitarian  scherne  as  van- 
ity and  Hes.  It  is  an  interpretation  of  the  gos- 
pel which  annihilates  it.  So  then  we  conclude 
that  Christianity  is  religion, — the  religion  of 
the  communion  of  man  with  God,  the  God  who 
is  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit. 

The  second  virtue  of  this  definition  is  that 
It  traces  the  Christian  religion  to  its  ultimate 
source  in  the  love  of  God.  Any  conception  of 
religion  or  any  interpretation  of  the  gospel 
that  is  untrue  to  the  original,  essential,  un- 
changeable love  of  God  will  be  cast  out  as  false 
by  the  Christian  conscience.  That  "God  is 
love"  is  the  deepest  truth  of  the  divine  self- 
manifestation  in  his  Son,  in  that  Son's  apostles, 
and  in  the  hearts  of  all  their  followers.  This 
love  is  the  only  hope  of  sinners  and  the  only 
shelter  of  humanity.  It  is  of  the  eternal  nature 
of  God,  unproduced,  underived :  lest  we  should 
overlook  it,  twice  within  the  limits  of  a  brief 


24  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

epistle  the  Apostle  John  tells  us  that  "God  is 
love."^*  That  the  holiness  of  God  involves 
also  the  necessary  condemnation  of  sin  may 
have  led  some  to  preach  as  if  the  text  read, 
"God  gave  his  only-begotten  Son  that  he  might 
love  the  world";  but  there  is  no  sentiment  in 
the  New  Testament  even  distantly  akin  to  this. 
The  atonement  is  born  of  the  divine  love;  not 
the  divine  love  of  the  atonement.  The  new- 
born babe  lying  upon  its  mother's  breast  is  the 
most  helpless  and  dependent  of  earth's  crea- 
tures. If  the  mother  love  could  be  transformed 
into  malignity,  the  babe's  future  would  be  hope- 
less: indeed,  instant  destruction  would  be  in- 
evitable; it  must  perish.  Likewise,  if  God 
could  become  the  enemy  of  man  and  array  him- 
self against  his  child,  there  could  be  no  deliv- 
erance for  the  helpless  and  sinful  race. 

But  this  love  is  recognized  as  redeeming 
love.     It  brings  deliverance  through  the  death 

="^1  John  iv.  8,  i6. 


And  His  Apostles  25 

of  Christ  from  the  retributive  wrath  of  a  holy 
God  and  the  merited  penalty  of  sin.^^  Christ 
himself  is  redemption  (^dnoXvtpoaig).^^  This 
love  of  God,  therefore,  is  directed  not  to  angels, 
but  to  men ;  not  to  sinless,  but  to  sinful,  beings. 
It  is  active,  outgoing,  seeking,  transitive.  It 
removes  obstacles.  It  comes  in  the  person  of 
Jesus  Christ  to  seek  and  to  save  the  lost.  It 
pays  a  price  for  its  own  satisfaction.  It  is 
based  on  the  infinite  preciousness  of  its  object 
to  the  heart  of  God,  apart  from  moral  desert. 
The  human  soul,  even  in  sin,  is  a  treasure 
whose  possession  God  himself  desires  and  is 
willing  to  purchase  at  a  great  price.  "A  doc- 
trine of  atonement,"  well  says  Dr.  James  Den- 
ney,  "is  a  doctrine  of  the  cost  of  forgiveness  to 
God."  A  cheap  forgiveness  is  a  kind  of  moral 
horror,  for  it  can  only  mean  that  sin,  so  terrible 
to  man,  is  nothing  to  God.  This  undeserved, 
seeking,  saving  love  directed  to  the  unworthy 

'^Rom.  iii.  24;  Eph.  i.  7;  Col.  i.  14. 
'®i  Cor.  i.  30. 


26  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

and  the  outcast  is  the  deepest  lesson  of  the  par- 
able of  the  Lost  Son^^ — that  crown  of  all  our 
Lord's  parabolic  sayings.  Whatever  may  be 
involved  in  the  transition  from  a  probationary 
to  a  punitive  state,  from  the  temporal  to  the 
eternal  world  of  fixed  results,  there  is  no  rea- 
son to  question  that  the  gospel  represents  this 
love  as  following  the  vilest  into  the  depths  and 
to  the  lowermost  limit  of  possible  recovery. 

The  primary  redemptive  movement  of  the 
divine  love  manifests  itself  in  the  Incarnation. 
Here  lies  the  heart  of  the  question  in  our  day 
about  the  nature  of  Christianity.  The  dignity, 
the  beauty,  the  purity,  the  intellectual  original- 
ity and  force,  the  spiritual  insight  and  genius, 
even  the  moral  uniqueness  and  sinlessness,  of 
Jesus  are  freely,  nay  gladly,  recognized.  All 
that  realm,  the  Galilean  has  conquered.  On 
this  plane  there  seems  the  opportunity  of  recon- 
ciliation of  the  religion  of  Christendom  with 

"Luke  XV.  11-32. 


And  His  Apostles  27 

the  science  of  Christendom,  preparatory  to  the 
universalizing  of  Christianity.  If  the  reahty 
of  the  Incarnation  be  surrendered,  for  theology 
itself,  as  well  as  general  knowledge  and  com- 
mon intelligence,  there  seems  to  be  great  relief : 
all  the  puzzles  of  the  dual  nature  of  the  Incar- 
nate Person,  all  the  mysteries  of  the  Trinitarian 
existence  of  the  Godhead,  are  eliminated  at 
one  stroke;  and  Jesus,  as  the  fairest  flower  of 
humanity,  diffuses  his  fragrance  throughout 
the  world.  It  is  a  tempting  suggestion.  If 
Christ  and  Christianity  can  be  reduced  within 
the  limits  of  the  human,  amalgamation  with  all 
else  that  is  human, — science,  ethics,  social  re- 
form, political  advance, — immediately  follows. 
Moreover  in  many  minds, — let  it  be  frankly 
acknowdedged, — the  suggestion  is  not  born  of 
the  spirit  of  compromise,  but  of  dire  necessity. 
The  modern  mind  is  really  for  Christianity — 
without  miracle  and  without  dogma  ;-^  but  so- 

^  Such  is  the  contention  of  Mr.  Matthew  Arnold  in 
his  ''Literature  and  Dogma."     How  attenuated  Chris- 


28  The  Christianity  of  Christ 


phisticated  by  the  conception  of  the  universahty 
and  uniformity  of  law,  by  the  reign  of  causal- 
ity, and  by  the  brilliant  generalization  that 
most  men  have  agreed  to  style  evolution,  with- 
out raising  further  hard  questions,  it  revolts 
fundamentally  and  almost  instinctively  at  the 
notion  of  Incarnation — the  living  of  the  life  of 
God  within  the  limits  of  the  life  of  even  the 
wisest,  purest,  and  most  Godlike  man.  It  is, 
therefore,  not  so  much  a  proposal  of  compro- 
mise and  surrender,  a  price  to  be  paid  for  the 
allegiance  of  aliens,  as  it  is  a  condition  and  de- 
mand created  by  the  modern  spirit,  without 
which  it  seems  to  find  itself  unable  to  enter 
upon  the  path  of  religion.  As  such,  we  may 
sympathize  with  it. 

tianity  becomes  in  the  hands  of  this  apostle  of  culture 
I  need  not  stay  to  point  out :  in  the  hands  of  others 
(positivists,  pantheists,  agnostics,  secularists)  the  thin 
thread  of  "the  Power  not  ourselves  that  makes  for 
righteousness"  breaks  in  twain,  and  both  ends, — the 
"Power  not  ourselves"  and  the  "righteousness"  for  our- 
selves,— are  flung  away. 


And  His  Apostles  29 

But  let  us  reflect.  Christianity  without  the 
Incarnation  ceases  to  be  religion.  It  surrenders 
its  distinction.  Jesus,  however  unique  in  the 
ethical  realm,  is  no  more  a  bond  and  mediator 
between  God  and  man  than  Socrates,  with 
whom  he  has  been  so  often  compared.  Har- 
nack  more  than  intimates  that  the  discourse 
of  Jesus,  as  set  forth  in  Mark,  Matthew,  and 
Luke,  was  exclusively  of  the  Father  and  never 
of  himself.  But  this  is  a  mistake:  and  the 
Ritschlians  generally  have  been  obliged  to 
assign  to  Jesus  the  "value"  of  God.  Here 
Loisy  joins  the  issue  most  effectively  with 
Harnack,  and  I  very  cordially  side  wuth  the 
Catholic  against  the  Lutheran.  Whatever  may 
or  may  not  have  been  the  apocalyptic  elements 
that  entered  into  Jesus'  total  conception  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God,  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
itself  his  own  lordship  in  the  Kingdom  is  di- 
rectly coupled  with  the  rewards  of  obedience 
to  the  Father's  will:  "Not  every  one  that 
saith  unto  me,   Lord,   Lord,   shall  enter  into 


30  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

the  kingdom  of  heaven;  but  he  that  doeth 
the  will  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven. 
Many  will  say  to  me  in  that  day,  Lord,  Lord, 
have  we  not  prophesied  in  thy  name?  and  in 
thy  name  have  cast  out  devils?  and  in  thy 
name  done  many  w^onderful  works?  And  then 
will  /  profess  unto  them,  /  never  knew  you: 
depart  from  me,  ye  that  work  iniquity. "^^  And 
the  great  and  decisive  passage  in  Matthew  and 
Luke  is  an  indisputable  and  integral  element  of 
the  synoptical  tradition :  *'A11  things  are  deliv- 
ered unto  me  of  my  Father,  and  no  man  know- 
eth  the  Son  but  the  Father:  neither  knoweth 
any  man  the  Father  save  the  Son,  and  he  to 
whomsoever  the  Son  will  reveal  him."^^  Upon 
this  knowledge  and  power  Jesus  bases  his  direct 
invitation  to  the  world  to  come  (not  to  the 
Father  but)  to  himself:  ''Come  unto  me  all  ye 
that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  /  will  give 
you  rest.     Take  my  yoke  upon  yon,  and  learn 

'*Matt.  vii.  21-23. 

'°  Matt.  xi.  27 ;  Luke  x.  22. 


And  His  Apostles  31 

of  me,  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  in  heart :  and 
ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your  souls.  For  my  yoke 
is  easy,  and  my  burden  is  light."^^ 

This  conclusion  is  not  merely  theoretical. 
As  has  been  intimated,  it  has  the  widest  con- 
firmation of  history,  and,  it  may  be  added,  of 
Christian  experience.  Every  form  and  species 
of  Unitarianism  is  felt  to  deprive  Christianity 
of  its  worth  and,  as  religion,  is  doomed.  Christ 
has  a  divine  place  in  his  religion  or  (essential- 
ly) he  has  none.  Unitarianism  may  be  compre- 
hensible; it  may  be  acceptable  to  the  scientific 
spirit;  as  a  simplification  it  may  seem  the  bet- 
ter adapted  to  diffusion;  we  may  even  forgive 
the  tortuous  exegesis  of  professional  theolo- 
gians like  Wendt,^^  George  Holley  Gilbert,^^ 
and  others  who,  in  this  interest,  would  exclude 
the  preexistence  from  the  sayings  of  Jesus  re- 


"Matt.  xi.  28-30. 

*' "Teaching  of  Jesus,"  II.   168-178. 

^  In  his  "Revelation  of  Jesus." 


32  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

corded  in  the  Gospel  of  John,  or,  what  amounts 
to  the  same  thing,  reduce  it  to  a  purely  ideal 
significance;  but,  when  the  last  concession  is 
made,  the  witness  of  the  New  Testament,  of 
the  Christian  consciousness,  and  of  history  is 
uniform  that  without  a  Divine  Christ  his  re- 
ligion is  powerless  and  dead.  It  might  sur- 
vive as  ethics  or  as  a  programme  of  social 
progress;  but  the  satisfaction  of  the  scientific 
demand,  thus  conceived,  is  the  denial  of  the  re- 
ligious need;  and  Christianity  is  asked  to  sur- 
vive by  a  sacrifice  that  involves  its  death. 

That  the  redeeming  love  should  come  to  man 
by  way  of  the  Cross  is  to-day,  as  from  the  be- 
ginning, another  stone  of  stumbling.  Theo- 
logically, it  is  thought  to  be  inconsistent  with 
the  basal  fact  of  the  divine  love  on  which  I 
have  insisted  as  the  ultimate  source  of  the 
Christian  religion ;  ethically,  it  is  thought  to  in- 
volve a  contradiction  of  our  primary  intuitions. 
Historically,  it  is  sometimes  hinted  that  the 
doctrine  of  Atonement  is  not  older  than  An- 


And  His  Apostles  33 

selm,^^  and  owes  much  of  its  Protestant  cur- 
rency to  Grotius;^'^  or  that,  so  far  as  PauHne, 
it  is  only  a  juridical  reflection  of  Roman  law  in 
the  Christian  firmament. 

Once  more  I  may  appeal  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment, to  Christian  consciousness,  and  to  his- 
tory that  a  connection  between  the  death  of 
Christ  and  the  forgiveness  of  sins  is  primitive 
and  constant  in  the  Christian  religion.  It  is 
directly  traceable  to  the  lips  of  Jesus  in  the 
two  great  sayings  of  the  Synoptical  Gospels : 
''The  Son  of  man  came  not  to  be  ministered 
unto,  but  to  minister,  and  to  give  his  life  a  ran- 
som for  many  {^ovvac  ryjv  '^vxvjv  avrov  ?iV- 
rpov  dvrl  nolXojv)  ,"^^  and  'This  is  my  blood 
of  the  covenant  which  is  shed  for  many  unto 

^*''Ciir  Deus  Homo?"  finished  at  Capua  in   1098. 

^'  "Defense  of  the  Catholic  Faith  Concerning  the 
Satisfaction  of  Christ  Against  Socinus,"  published  in 
1617. 

"®  IMark  x.  45 ;  Matt.  xx.  28 :  "to  liberate  many  from 
the  misery  and  penalty  of  their  sins,"  Thayer,  sub  voce. 

3 


34  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

remission  of  sins  (efg  a^eOuv  aiiapTiCyv).''^ 
When  we  descend  to  the  apostoHc  circles  we 
find  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews, 
John,  and  Paul  all  committed  to  the  use  of  the 
great  words,  IXdoxsaOaL,  t/lacr^og',  iT^aarripiOv : 
"Wherefore  it  behoved  him  in  all  things  to  be 
made  like  unto  his  brethren,  that  he  might  be  a 
merciful  and  faithful  high  priest  in  things  per- 
taining to  God  to  make  propitiation  for  the  sins 
of  the  people  ( eig  to  IXdaxeGOai  rag  aiiaprtag 
tov  Xaov)''  f^  "And  he  is  the  propitiation  for 
our  sins  ([Xacr^og  ianv  nepl  tc^v  ay.apt lidv 
n[i(^v) ;  and  not  for  ours  only,  but  also  for 
the  whole  world  (jtepl  oXov  tov  xoa^iov)''  f^ 
"Herein  is  love,  not  that  we  loved  God,  but 
that  he  loved  us,  and  sent  his  Son  to  be  the  pro- 
pitiation for  our  sins  ( xal  dnearsLXEv  rov  vlov 
avtov  LAaa^ov  nept  rcdv  a^aajDrtcoz^  n[iG}v)  ; 
"Whom   God   set   forth  to  be  a  propitiation, 

^^Matt.  xxvi.  28. 

"'Heb.  ii.  17.     ''i  John  ii.  2.     '"i  John  iv.   10. 


And  His  Apostles  35 

through  faith,  by  his  blood  (  ov  npoeOsto  6  Beog 
IXaaryjptov  Slol  TclcytEog  iv  rco  avrov  al^att), 
to  show  his  righteousness  because  of  the  pass- 
ing over  of  the  sins  done  aforetime,  in  the  for- 
bearance of  God."^^  Thus  on  the  widest  in- 
duction of  the  several  classes  of  the  apos- 
tolic literature  of  the  New  Testament,  we  find 
a  threefold  witness  to  the  reality  of  atone- 
ment by  propitiatory  sacrifice  in  the  death  of 
Christ. 

That  the  demand  for  atonement  is  consist- 
ent with  the  love  of  God  is  manifest  when  we 
regard  the  holy  element  in  that  love;  and  that 
the  divine  love  provides  the  atonement  is  ex- 
pressly declared.  "Herein  is  love,"  to  quote 
once  more  a  pivotal  passage,  ''not  that  we  loved 
God,  but  that  he  loved  us,  and  sent  his  Son  the 

^^  Rom.  iii.  25 :  See  Sanday's  full  discussion  of  this 
passage,  "It  is  impossible  to  get  rid,  from  this  passage, 
of  the  double  idea  (i)  of  a  sacrifice,  (2)  of  a  sacrifice 
which  is  propitiatory." — Com.  on  Romans,  in  Interna- 
tional Critical  Commentary. 


36  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

propitiation  for  our  sins."  And  Paul  declares, 
*'God  commendeth  his  own  love  toward  us,  in 
that,  while  we  were  yet  sinners,  Christ  died 
for  us.""^-  It  is  clear  that  there  was  no  antece- 
dent indisposition  in  this  divine  love  to  forgive, 
else  it  could  not  have  freely  provided  the  nec- 
essary means  to  forgiveness.  It  is  clear  that 
the  divine  holiness  interposed  an  obstacle  to 
forgiveness,  else  the  propitiatory  sacrifice  had 
been  unnecessary.'^^  The  atonement  is  thus  at 
once  the  propitiation  for  sins  and  the  measure- 
less revelation  of  the  forgiving  love  of  God. 
More  than  twenty  years  ago  I  printed  an  ex- 

^'Rom.  V.  8. 

^^  "The  obstacle  to  forgiveness,"  says  Dr.  Stevens, 
''lies  not  in  God's  feelings,  but  in  his  essential  right- 
eousness, which  so  conditions  his  grace  that  without  its 
satisfaction  he  cannot  in  self-consistency  forgive.  In 
the  heathen  view  expiation  renders  the  gods  willing  to 
forgive ;  in  the  biblical  view  expiation  enables  God, 
consistently  with  his  holiness,  actually  to  do  what  he 
never  was  unwilling  to  do." 


And  His  Apostles  37 

position  of  the  doctrine  of  atonement"*"^  which 
enters  into  details  and  combats  objections.  I 
have  no  disposition  so  much  as  to  look  into 
that  earlier  piece  of  work  just  now;  though 
I  abide  by  its  conclusions  and  the  grounds  of 
them.  It  is  enough  to  say,  in  this  connection, 
that,  as  of  the  essence  of  Christianity,  the 
atonement  presents  tw^o  aspects — toward  God 
and  for  man.  Toward  God  it  is  propitiatory; 
for  man  it  is  vicarious.  Jesus  in  his  death  is 
man's  substitute  before  God  and  the  author 
of  salvation  by  the  remission  of  sins.  The 
Scriptures  have  nothing  to  say,  indeed,  of  com- 
mercial equivalence  in  penalty,  an  uncondi- 
tional exchange  of  so  much  for  so  much  which 
is  utterly  foreign  to  the  moral  realm,  nor  of 
that  other  impossible  human  theory  of  ethical 
transfer  of  character.  But  rob  the  atonement 
of  its  propitiatory  and  vicarious  character,  and 
you  degrade  it  to  the  level  merely  of  a  moral 

^"Methodist  Doctrine  of  Atonement,"  in  the  Meth- 
odist Quarterly  Review  (New  York)   for  April,  1884. 


3^  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

spectacle, — which,  indeed,  it  is,  subHmely  ap- 
peahng  and  moving, — or  of  a  governmental 
expedient, — which  subordinately  and  conse- 
quentially it  may  be;  but  neither  the  moral 
spectacle  nor  the  governmental  expedient  an- 
swers to  the  full  and  deep  representation  of  the 
New  Testament  concerning  the  ground  and  de- 
mand and  provision  of  atonement  in  God  him- 
self; nor  is  any  view  that  omits  the  propitiatory 
and  vicarious  elements  able  to  inake  the  guilty 
conscience  clean.*^ 

The    Spirit   answers   to   the   blood, 
And  tells  me  I  am  born  o£  God. 

That  the  earliest  theme  of  apostolic  preach- 
ing, b}^  Peter'^'^  no  less  than  by  Paul,*^  was  Jesus 

*^  Perhaps  the  best  of  our  recent  treatises  on  the  sub- 
ject is  Dr.  James  Denney's  "The  Death  of  Christ."  Dr. 
Bernhard  Weiss  in  his  just  now  (1905)  published  "Re- 
ligion of  the  New  Testament"  has  some  exceedingly- 
valuable  expositions  of  the  pertinent  scriptures. 

*"Acts  ii   24-36;  HI.  15,  21;  iv.  2. 

"'Acts  xiii.  30-37;  xvii.  18:  "because  he  preached 
Jesus  and  the  resurrection." 


And  His  Apostles  39 

and  the  resurrection  does  not  admit  of  doubt. 
The  resurrection  was  the  tremendous  event 
that  reestablished  the  faith  of  the  apostles  and 
disciples,  and  clearly  became  the  most  vivid 
and  the  overshadowing  and  dominant  fact  in 
the  consciousness  of  the  Apostolic  Church.  It 
was  a  physical  resurrection.  The  empty  grave 
alone  might  not  establish  this  fact;  but  the 
documents  are  uniform  in  placing  the  stress  on 
the  evidence  of  the  senses  and  indisputable 
tests  of  bodily  existence  and  sensible  experi- 
ence— such  as  eating  and  drinking,  and  the 
correction  or  corroboration  of  sight  by  touch. 
"Him  God  raised  up  the  third  day,"  is  Peter's 
summary  in  the  Acts  of  the  experiences  of  the 
disciples  with  their  Risen  Lord,  ''and  showed 
him  openly,  not  to  all  the  people,  but  unto  wit- 
nesses chosen  before  of  God,  even  to  us  Vv^ho 
did  eat  and  drink  with  him  after  he  rose  from 
the  dead."'*^     In  the  earliest  summary  of  the 

^Acts  X.  40,  41. 


/fO  7  lie  Christianity  of  Christ 

evidence  by  Paul,  "he  was  seen  of  Cephas,  then 
of  the  tweh'e ;  after  that,  he  was  seen  of  above 
five  hundred  brethren  at  once,  of  whom  the 
greater  part  remain  unto  this  present,  but  some 
are  fallen  asleep;  after  that,  he  w^as  seen  of 
James,  then  of  all  the  apostles;  and  last  of  all 
he  w^as  seen  of  me  also,  as  of  one  born  out  of 
due  time.""^^  The  details  of  the  gospel  narra- 
tives amply  confirm  these  Petrine  and  Pauline 
summaries.  "Jesus  saith  unto  them,  Come 
and  dine.  .  .  .  Jesus  then  cometh  and 
taketh  bread  and  giveth  them,  and  fish  like- 
wise. ...  So  when  they  had  dined,  Jesus 
saith  to  Simon  Peter,"^^  etc.  "And  they  gave 
him  a  piece  of  a  broiled  iish  and  of  an  honey- 
comb, and  he  took  it,  and  did  eat  before 
them."^^  "Behold  my  hands  and  my  feet,  that 
it  is  I  myself:  handle  me  and  see;  for  a  spirit 
hath  not  flesh  and  bones  as  ye  see  me  have.''^^ 
"Then  saith  he  to  Thomas,  Reach  hither  thy 

"'i  Cor.  XV.  5-8.     ^"John  xxi.  12-15. 
"Luke  xxiv.  42,  43.     "Lnke  xxiv.  39. 


And  His  Apostles  41 

finger,  and  behold  my  hands ;  and  reach  hither 
thy  hand  and  thrust  it  into  my  side:  and  be 
not  faithless,  but  believing."^^  And  yet  Jesus' 
own  commendation  is  upon  a  mightier  demon- 
stration than  that  of  sense,  ''Blessed  are 
they  that  have  not  seen,  and  yet  have  be- 
lieved."^^ 

To  this  history  must  be  added  prophecy — on 
the  lips  of  Jesus  himself.  These  prophecies 
were  of  the  obscurer  as  well  as  the  plainer  kind, 
and  on  that  account  possess  with  many  critical 
minds  the  greater  weight.  ''Destroy  this  tem- 
ple, and  in  three  days  I  will  raise  it  up"^^  is  a 
sentence  that  (historical  criticism  warrants  us 
in  saying)   undoubtedly  fell  from  the  lips  of 

^^John  XX,  27.     ^^John  xx.  29. 

^°John  ii.  19;  cf.  Matt.  xxvi.  61;  xxvii.  40;  Mark 
xiv.  58;  XV.  29,  30.  John  records  the  saying  in  the 
course  of  his  history,  but  makes  no  mention  of  its  use 
at  the  trial  of  Jesus ;  while  Mark  and  Matthew  have  no 
record  of  Jesus'  use  of  the  saying,  but  both  mention  its 
production  as  proof  of  blasphemy  at  the  ecclesiastical 
trial  of  our  Lord. 


The  Christianity  of  Christ 


Jesus.  ''As  Jonah  was  three  days  and  three 
nights  in  the  whale's  belly ;  so  shall  the  Son  of 
man  be  three  days  and  three  nights  in  the  heart 
of  the  earth,"^^  is  an  equally  indisputable  say- 
ing in  which  a  definitely  limited  but  other- 
wise wholly  indefinite  interment,  with  no  men- 
tion of  either  death  or  resurrection,  is  dwelt 
upon. 

St.  Paul  long  since  set  forth  the  conse- 
quences of  the  denial  of  the  resurrection  of 
Jesus.  "Now  if  Christ  be  preached  that  he 
rose  from  the  dead,  how  say  some  among  you 
that  there  is  no  resurrection  of  the  dead  ?  But 
if  there  be  no  resurrection  of  the  dead,  then  is 
not  Christ  risen.  And  if  Christ  be  not  risen, 
then  is  our  preaching  vain,  and  your  faith  is 
also  vain.  Yea,  and  we  are  found  false  wit- 
nesses of  God ;  because  we  have  testified  of  God 
that  he  raised  up  Christ:  whom  he  raised  not 
up,  if  so  be  that  the  dead  rise  not.     For  if  the 


'Matt.  xii.  40. 


And  His  Apostles  43 

dead  rise  not,  then  is  not  Christ  raised;  and,  if 
Christ  be  not  raised,  your  faith  is  vain ;  ye  are 
yet  in  your  sins.  Then  they  also  which  are 
fallen  asleep  in  Christ  are  perished.  If  in  this 
life  only  we  have  hope  in  Christ,  we  are  of  all 
men  most  miserable.  But  now  is  Christ  risen 
from  the  dead,  and  become  the  first  fruits  of 
them  that  slept. "^^  These  consequences  follow 
as  certainly  to-day  as  when  the  apostle  wrote. 
The  resurrection  gave  life  to  Christianity;  it 
sustains  the  life  of  the  Church  now;  without 
it  the  religion  of  Jesus  must  perish. 

Historically,  as  we  have  seen,  the  resurrec- 
tion of  Jesus  is  sufficiently  attested.  Even 
Keim,  with  all  his  indisposition  to  transcend 
the  limits  of  historical  and  natural  science  as 
he  conceives  them,  is  obliged  to  conclude  that, 
though  "history  can  take  cognizance  only  of  the 
faith  of  the  disciples  that  the  Master  was  risen, 
and  of  the  marvelous  effect  of  this  faith  in  the 

^'i   Cor.  XV.  12-20. 


44  T-he  Christianity  of  Christ 


establishment  of  Christianity";  yet  ''in  order 
to  account  for  this  faith  of  the  disciples  and  its 
effect  in  conquering  and  renovating  the  world, 
we  must  suppose,  contrary  to  the  natural  order 
to  which  science  is  confined,  that  God  did  not 
let  what  he  had  ordained  end  in  death,  or  hand 
over  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  to  the  uncertain 
play  of  subjective  visions."^®  With  his  extra- 
natural  and  extra-scientific  explanations  we 
need  not  concern  ourselves ;  the  facts  are  much 
more  naturally  accounted  for  by  the  physical 
resurrection.  The  tendencies  to  its  denial  even 
among  some  theologians  of  our  day  are  the  re- 
sult of  the  pressure  of  the  modern  spirit.  But, 
if  in  Jesus  God  became  incarnate,  the  resurrec- 
tion and  ascension  become  his  natural,  if  not 
necessary,  exit  from  the  earthly  sphere,  and 
this  pressure  is  misdirected.  The  resurrec- 
tion is  the  direct  continuation  of  the  line  which 
marks  the  character  and  activities   of  Jesus. 

'"'Jesus  of  Nazareth,"  VI.  360-362. 


Aiul  His  Apostles  45 

As  an  historical  religion,  therefore,  Christian- 
ity includes  this  fact  in  its  foundations.  It  is 
as  the  living  and  glorified  Head  of  his  Church 
that  Jesus  perpetuates  his  work.  By  one  Spirit, 
proceeding  from  the  Father  and  from  the  Son, 
are  we  all  baptized  into  one  Body.  Sever  the 
Head  from  the  Body  and  the  Body  dies.  The 
Church  lives  through  her  living  Head,  "who 
ever  lives  to  make  intercession  for  us." 

For  a  moment,  I  may  review  the  course 
along  which  we  have  come.  Christianity  is  re- 
ligion,— communion  wijth  God  mediated  by 
Jesus  Christ  and  sustained  by  his  Spirit ;  it  has 
its  source  in  the  freely  bestowed  and  freely 
bestowing  love  of  God ;  which,  in  turn,  is  a  re- 
deeming activity  exerted  toward  sinners,  mani- 
fested in  and  measured  by  the  Incarnation,  the 
Atonement,  and  the  Resurrection  of  Jesus 
Christ.  So  far  the  Gospel  centers  in  the  Per- 
son of  Jesus,  and  what  he  was  and  did  is  more 
than  what  he  taught  beyond  this  sphere,  all  his 
ethics  having  their  spring  here  both  for  him 


4^  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

and  for  his  disciples  to  the  end  of  time.  "Oth- 
er foundation  can  no  man  lay  than  that  is  laid, 
which  is  Jesus  Christ. ''^^  It  is  a  divinely  laid 
foundation  in  the  birth,  the  death,  and  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  which  no  hu- 
man master  builder  can  add,  and  from  which 
he  cannot  take  away.  It  is  a  real  and  objective 
foundation,  unchangeable  with  the  unchange- 
ableness  of  God,  beyond  the  reach  of  Churches, 
councils,  and  theologians.  The  essentials  of 
the  Christian  religion  are  embodied  in  its 
Founder.  The  attempt  to  remove  any  of  them 
is  to  dismember  Him.^^ 

^^i  Cor.  iii.  ii. 

^  On  the  great  passage  in  i  Cor,  iii.  ii,  Meyer  cor- 
rectly and  decisively  remarks :  ''The  foundation  already 
lying  there,  however,  is  not  that  which  Paul  had  laid 
(as  most  interpreters,  resting  on  verse  lo;  including  dc 
Wette,  Neander,  Maier,  Hofmann)  •;  for  his  affirmation 
is  universal,  and  if  no  one  can  lay  another  foundation 
than  that  which  lies  already  there,  Paul,  of  course, 
could  not  do  so  either,  and  therefore  the  keiuevoq  must 
have  been  m  its  place  before  the   apostle  himself  laid 


And  His  Apostles  47 

We  may  now  pass  to  Jesus'  life  work  as  a 
Teacher  and  the  Founder  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God. 

In  a  sense,  we  are  now  turning  from  the  his- 
torical and  the  spiritual  to  present,  practical, 
and  concrete  Christianity.  We  turn  to  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  concerning  the  law  of  love  as 

his  foundation.  Hence  the  Kel/nevoc  ds/xOuog  is  that  laid 
by  God  (so,  rightly,  Riickert  and  Olshausen),  namely, 
Jesus  Christ  himself,  the  fundamentum  essentiale,  he 
whom  God  sent,  delivered  up  to  death,  raised  again, 
and  exalted,  thereby  making  him  to  be  for  us  wisdom 
and  righteousness  and  sanctification  and  redemption. 
.  .  .  This  is  the  objective  foundation,  which  lies  there 
for  the  whole  of  Christendom.  But  this  foundation  is 
laid  (v.  lo)  by  the  founder  of  a  Church  [as  Paul], 
inasmuch  as  he  makes  Christ  to  be  appropriated  by 
believers,  to  be  the  contents  of  their  conscious  faith, 
and  thereby  establishes  them  in  the  character  of  a 
Christian  Church." — H.  A.  W.  Meyer,  Commentary  on 
First  Corinthians  in  loco.  Cf.  Beet :  "Christ  is  the 
foundation  of  the  Church,  objectively;  inasmuch  as 
upon  his  death  and  resurrection  rest  his  people's  faith 
and  hope.    He  is  so  subjectively  by  his  presence  in  them. 


48  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

the  law  of  life, — a  teaching  which  is  the  direct 
consequence  of  the  revelation  of  the  love  and 
Fatherhood  of  God.  It  is  not  necessary  to  es- 
tablish here  by  a  critical  inquiry  the  exact  na- 
ture of  the  Kingdom  of  God.^^  The  literature 
of  the  subject  is  voluminous  and  instructive, 
and  is  still  increasing.  Jesus  clearly  regarded 
himself  both  as  the  Founder  of  the  Kingdom 
and  as  King  within  it.  The  Old  Testament 
dispensation  is  preparatory,  and  even  John 
the  Baptist  is  external  to  the  Kingdom. ^^ 
The  Kingdom  is,  in  general,  the  reign  of 
God  through  his  Son  in  holy  love  over  the 
hearts  and  lives  of  men  who  accept  the  law  of 

The  rock  on  which  we  stand  is  both  beneath  our  feet 
and  within  our  hearts.  This  foundation,  laid  objectively 
for  the  whole  Church  on  the  Great  Facts,  was  laid 
subjectivel}'  in  the  hearts  of  the  Christians  at  Corinth, 
as  the  firm  ground  of  their  personal  hopes,  by  Paul." — 
Commentary  on  First  Corinthians. 

^^See  Bruce ;  and  Orr,  in  Hastings's  "Dictionary  of 
the  Bible." 

''':Matt.  xi.  II. 


And  His  Apostles  49 

supreme  love  to  him  and  of  universal  love  to 
their  kind.  'The  Kingdom  of  God  is  not 
meat  and  drink,  but  righteousness  and 
peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost,"  is  the 
final  conception  and  deposit  in  the  Chris- 
tian consciousness  as  reflected  in  the  Pauline 
Epistles.  The  Church,  though  falling  far  short 
of  the  ideal,  may,  for  our  present  purpose,  be 
accepted  as  its  organized  and  visible  form.  It 
is  one :  its  marks  are  the  congregation  of  faith- 
ful men,  the  preaching  of  the  pure  word  of 
God,  and  the  two  sacraments  of  Baptism  and 
the  Lord's  Supper.  All  the  Churches, — if  we 
accept  the  superficial  plural, — contribute  to  the 
Kingdom  and  belong  to  it;  and  yet  it  is  more 
than  the  sum  of  all  the  Churches.  The  redeem- 
ing activities  which,  humanly  speaking,  ema- 
nate from  the  Kingdom  fall  upon  all  men  as 
potential  sons  of  God  and  citizens  of  his  realm. 
The  divine  administration  as  directed  toward 
wicked  and  rebellious  children, — who  are  still 
children  in  the  divine  regard, — is  for  their 
4 


50  Tlic  Cliristianity  of  Christ 

reclamation  and  salvation.  Jesus  laid  down 
the  golden  rule  and  the  law  of  love  as  the  neces- 
sary legislation  of  the  Kingdom ;  and  St.  John 
adds  to  his  declaration  of  the  divine  love 
(''Herein  is  love,  not  that  we  loved  God,  but 
that  he  loved  us,  and  sent  his  Son  the  pro- 
pitiation for  our  sins")  the  deduced  injunc- 
tion, ''Beloved,  if  God  so  loved  us,  we  ought 
also  to  love  one  another."^^  More  briefly: 
"We  love,  because  he  first  loved  us."^^  The 
motive  of  the  love  we  ought  to  bear  one 
another  is  not  found  in  the  worthiness  of 
the  object,  even  as  this  is  not  the  source  and 
spring  of  the  divine  love ;  but  in  the  undeserved 
goodness  of  God  in  the  gift  of  his  Son  for 
us  and  for  all  men,  notwithstanding  their 
and  our  unworthiness.  Once  more  the  vital 
place  and  practical  value  of  the  Incarnation  in 
Christianity  become  apparent.  ]\ioreover,  the 
Fatherhood  of  God  is  the  original  truth,  from 

"'r  John  iv.  to,  tt.    '^''i  John  iv.  19,  7^.  ['. 


And  His  Apostles  51 

which  is  derived  the  brotherhood  of  man;  a 
brotherhood  estabHshed  through  the  relation 
of  the  children  to  a  common  Father.  And 
what  is  the  world,  both  within  and  with- 
out the  Church,  more  in  need  of  to-day  than 
the  reduction  of  the  law  of  love  to  practice 
and  the  everyday  and  matter-of-course  rec- 
ognition of  the  brotherhood  of  men?  Let  us 
notice  some  applications  of  the  law  of  the 
Kingdom. 

There  is  the  urgent  problem  of  capital  and 
labor.  Are  not  the  basal  laws  of  political  econ- 
omy confessedly  the  expression  and  outgrowth 
and,  when  consciously  followed,  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  principle  of  self-interest,  which,  on 
the  merely  human  plane,  is  regarded  as  legiti- 
mately and  necessarily  controlling?  Under  the 
law^  of  supply  and  demand,  does  not  the  capi- 
talist go  into  the  open  market  to  buy  labor  as 
he  goes  to  buy  material  ?  Does  he  not  seek  to 
purchase  flesh  and  blood  on  the  same  terms  and 
according  to  the  same  conditions  on  which  he 


52  The  Christianity  of  Christ 


purchases  lumber  or  bricks  or  stone  ?  I  am  not 
asking,  Is  he  cruel  in  his  feelings  or  purposes  ? 
In  the  view  of  economics,  simply,  Is  not  the 
price  of  labor  regulated  as  a  matter  of  course 
by  the  law  of  supply  and  demand  ?  Is  the  num- 
ber of  the  children  in  the  workman's  family, 
or  only  the  number  of  other  workmen  clam- 
orous to  do  the  given  work  for  the  same  or 
lower  wages,  the  decisive  element  in  estimating 
compensation  for  labor?  On  the  other  hand. 
Does  the  workmen's  union  consider  the  human 
suffering  entailed  by  the  prolonged  and  general 
strike,  or  only  its  effect  on  the  advancement  of 
wages?  I  need  not  tarry  to  give  formal  an- 
swers to  such  a  list  of  questions.  It  is  clear 
that  if  the  antagonisms  of  capital  and  labor  are 
ever  to  be  permanently  reconciled,  it  must  be 
through  the  bringing  in  of  a  higher  law  than 
that  which  rules  the  commercial  world.  The 
economic  world  cannot  be  divorced  from  the 
Christian.  In  a  word,  the  reconciliation  must 
come  because  both  capitalist  and  laborer  are 


And  His  Apostles  53 

made  members  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  ob- 
serve the  law  of  the  brotherhood.  Nothing  else 
can  regulate  human  greed,  on  the  one  hand,  or 
human  envy  and  withholding  of  that  which  is 
meet,  on  the  other.  The  Kingdom  of  God  is 
not  sociological  in  the  ordinary  sense;  but  it 
brings  in  the  law  and  the  better  hope  of  an- 
other society  of  which  Jesus  Christ  Is  the  Head, 
and  this  law  becomes  effective  as  the  individual 
capitalist  or  laborer  becomes  a  citizen  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God.  The  Kingdom  is  not  of  this 
world  because  Its  law  transcends  and  trans- 
forms the  laws  of  human  society;  but  it  is  of 
this  world  by  the  very  function  and  fact  of 
this  transformation.  Economics  and  sociology, 
pure  and  simple,  need  a  supplement  which  Is 
supplied  by  the  law  of  love  in  the  Kingdom  of 
God.  If  It  be  objected  that  such  a  supplement 
is  commercially  chimerical  and  Impossible, — 
after  the  manner  of  the  usual  coarse  and  blind 
criticisms  on  the  precepts  of  the  Sermon  on  the 
Alount, — the  answer  is  at  hand.    If  the  law  of 


54  ^^he  Christianity  of  Christ 

love  is  not  thus  capable  of  practical  and  general 
introduction  into  the  affairs  of  men,  then  Jesus 
was  a  mistaken  enthusiast  in  his  announcement 
of  this  supreme  and  universal  demand,  and  the 
Kingdom  of  God  is  a  city  in  cloudland.  But, 
to  my  mind,  the  correct  reading  of  the  Gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ  gives  every  man  the  most  prac- 
tical measure  of  his  Christianity,  and  the  most 
legible  warrant  of  his  citizenship  in  the  King- 
dom, in  the  degree  of  the  operation  of  the  law 
of  love  in  his  life.^^ 

A  favorite  specific  prescribed  by  the  social 
reformers  is  the  shortening  of  the  hours  of 
labor.  Shorten  them  by  all  means.  If  seven 
or  eight  hours  of  manual  labor  a  day  will  sus- 
tain the  laborer's  family  at  its  present  stage  of 
comfort  at  least,  society  or  commerce  ought 
not  to  exact  ten.  But  some  reformers  seem  to 
have  been  sadly  disappointed  that  the  emanci- 
pated laborer  does  not  always  devote  his  two 

'■'See  Dr.  C.  A.  Briggs's  "The  Ethical  Teaching  of 
Jesus." 


And  His  Apostles  55 

or  three  hours  of  leisure  to  the  reading  of  good 
books  in  the  *'hbrary"  which  he  is  supposed  to 
have  made  haste  to  accumulate,  or  to  his  gen- 
eral moral  and  religious  improvement.  Though 
the  notions  of  such  men  as  Bishop  Potter  con- 
cerning the  necessary  functions  of  the  saloon 
as  the  "poor  man's  club"  fall  but  little  short  of 
outright  diabolism,  it  is  nevertheless  true  that 
thousands  of  workmen  with  their  shortened 
time  will  employ  their  newly  acquired  leisure 
over  their  beer-mug  and  pipe  rather  than  over 
books  and  religious  newspapers. 

Let  these  shortened  hours  stand  as  repre- 
sentative of  all  else  that  it  is  proposed  to  give 
the  laborer — better  wages,  better  houses,  better 
food.  Let  it  be  granted  at  once  that  these  im- 
proved conditions  will  give  many  a  man  a 
chance  for  his  life — his  intellectual  and  spirit- 
ual life  as  well  as  his  physical.  Let  it  be 
ofranted  that  Christians  owe  it  to  their  Lord 
and  to  themselves,  as  well  as  to  the  underpaid 
laborer  and  the  "submerged  tenth,"  to  afford 


5^  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

these  better  conditions.  There  is  no  question, 
indeed,  of  the  duty  of  the  Church  and  of  so- 
ciety. But,  to  save  unthinking  sociological  en- 
thusiasm from  sore  disappointment,  it  may  be 
asked.  In  the  light  of  experience  and  our  knowl- 
edge of  human  nature,  what  results  are  to  be 
reasonably  expected  from  these  changes?  Are 
the  social  reformers  preaching  a  sane,  sober, 
true,  whole  gospel  when  they  lead  us  to  antici- 
pate the  general  redemption  of  society  through 
the  adoption  of  these  measures  ? 

All  of  these  changes  may  be  summed  up  in 
the  ambitious  language  of  the  books  on  sociol- 
ogy as  "transformation  of  environment."  By 
a  transformed  environment  it  is  thought  that 
society  may  be  regenerated  en  masse.  I  fear 
not.  On  Fifth  Avenue  the  increased  income 
and  leisure  lead  often  only  to  the  substitution 
of  the  bottle  of  champagne  for  the  bottle  of 
beer;  of  the  grand  ballroom  of  the  very  rich  for 
the  low  dance-hall  of  the  very  poor;  of  gilded 
and  elegant  lust,  which  reaches  its  end  if  need 


And  His  Apostles  57 

be  through  the  divorce  court,  for  the  foul  de- 
bauchery of  the  dive  and  the  slum.  The  gospel 
of  regeneration  through  a  new  environment, — 
unless  the  new  environment  is  wide  enough  to 
include  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  all  its  saving 
forces, — is  evidently  a  defective  and  misleading, 
— I  do  not  say  false, — gospel.  A  transformed 
environment  is  often  needed  for  both  the  very 
rich  and  the  very  poor  to  prepare  the  way  for 
the  Gospel  of  Christ.  Jesus  probably  thought 
it  more  necessary  for  the  former  than  for  the 
latter.  But,  in  either  case,  he  who  thinks  that 
a  change  of  environment  secures  a  change  of 
heart  is  vastly  mistaken.  At  the  extremes  of 
society  we  have  two  environments  which,  with 
the  exception  that  the  men  and  women  who 
move  in  them  are  human  beings,  have  scarcely 
an  element  in  common.  Yet  it  might  be  a  very 
nice  question  which  of  these  extremes  stands 
most  in  need  of  the  redemption  provided  in 
Christ.  The  lusts  of  human  nature  are  com- 
mon to  both  wings,  and  differ  only  in  the  de- 


58  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

cency  and  scale  of  their  gratification.  As  inti- 
mated above,  Jesus  doubtless  thought  the  case 
of  the  rich  sinner  more  desperate  than  that  of 
the  poor.  Let  the  Christian  sociologist  go  be- 
fore as  the  John  the  Baptist  of  the  Gospel  of 
Jesus  the  Christ.  Particularly,  let  both  wings 
of  society  be  reached  by  enlisting  the  very  rich 
in  the  service  of  the  very  poor.  Let  us  not  be 
discouraged  if  numbers  of  the  very  rich  refuse 
to  be  enlisted,  and  if  numbers  of  the  very  poor 
refuse  to  be  helped.  No  problem  is  more  deli- 
cate and  difficult  than  that  of  helping  the  help- 
less, whether  rich  or  poor.  It  is  visionary  to 
believe  that  we  shall  ever  be  able  to  bring  the 
whole  face  of  society  to  a  common  level,  eco- 
nomical and  financial,  or  moral  and  religious. 
Meantime,  the  gospel  of  love  and  service  is  of 
supreme  obligation,  and  must  dictate  the  life 
and  control  the  energies  and  resources  of  all 
who  profess  and  call  themselves  Christians. 
We  that  are  strong  ought  to  bear  the  infirmities 
of  the  weak,  even  to  the  extent  of  bearing  the 


And  His  Apostles  59 

infirmities  of  him  who  is  weak  by  his  own  fault 
and  sin.  But  transformation  of  environment 
will  not  solve  the  whole  problem :  our  gospel 
must  include  not  only  the  transformation  of  the 
environment,  but  the  transformation,  the  reor- 
ganization, the  regeneration  of  the  human  be- 
ings who  move  in  the  midst  of  it. 

Here  in  America,  and  more  especially  in  the 
South,  the  race  problem  is  always  with  us. 
Are  we  expecting  the  legislators  at  the  state 
capitals,  or  the  congressmen  at  Washington,  to 
solve  it  ?  Is  not  the  political  world,  like  that  of 
economics,  confessedly  ruled  by  the  law  of  hu- 
man self-interest  and  advancement?  Is  there 
any  hope  for  the  solution  of  such  a  problem  by 
political  machinery,  except  as  the  agents  who 
control  the  machinery  and  the  populations  that 
are  controlled  are  members  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God?  And  what  is  this  but  declaring  once 
more  that  the  reduction  of  the  law  of  love  to 
practice  is  the  Christian  and  only  solution  of 
the  race  problem?     Granted  that  the  negro  is 


6o  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

often  ignorant,  brutal,  savage. ^^  Granted  that 
his  too  frequent  record  of  unmentionable  crime 
is  horrible  and  revolting.  If  all  were  a  thou- 
sand-fold worse  than  it  is,  the  law  of  the  broth- 
erhood of  the  Kingdom  is  all  the  more  mani- 
festly the  only  sufficient  remedy.  For  the  duty 
to  discharge  all  the  offices  of  love,  let  us  recall, 
does  not  rest  on  the  worthiness  of  the  object, 
but  on  the  free,  undeserved  love  of  God  in 
Christ  Jesus  alike  to  us  and  to  the  negro.  If 
St.  Paul  were  writing  to-day,  he  might  ask, 
**Is  God  the  God  of  white  men  only?  Is  he 
not  also  of  the  negroes?"  and  he  would  answer, 
''Yes,  of  the  negroes  also."  And  in  that  an- 
swer would  be  wrapped  up  the  Christian  dy- 
namic of  love  that  should  dissipate  racial  ha- 
treds and  variances  and  solve  racial  problems 
of  whatsoever  nature. 

""Though  we  are  prone  to  overlook  his  astounding 
progress — as  an  owner  of  realty  and  a  payer  of  taxes, 
as  a  farmer,  merchant,  manufacturer,  and  professional 
man ;  progress,   educationally,  morally,  religiously. 


And  His  Apostles  6i 

The  Church  is  committed  by  her  Lord  to  the 
work  of  foreign  missions — to  the  Hmit  of 
world-wide  evangehzation.  And  much  of  the 
professed  disbehef  in  foreign  missions  is  hol- 
low and  selfish  and  avaricious,  even  when  the 
disbelievers  essay  to  justify  themselves  by  the 
needs  of  the  home  field.  Nevertheless,  If  we 
love  not  the  negro  whom  we  have  seen,  how 
shall  we  love  the  Chinaman  whom  we  have  not 
seen  ?  Is  not  the  negro  the  wounded,  bleeding, 
half-dead  Jew  lying  helpless  and  naked  in  the 
road  that  leads  from  every  Southern  door,  to 
whom  he  among  us  who  would  acquire  the 
neighborly  character  of  the  Good  Samaritan 
must  minister  ?  Can  any  assiduous  devotion  to 
the  distant  needy  one  absolve  us  from  the  duty 
of  ministration,  according  to  the  ability  which 
God  giveth,  to  this  desperately  needy  one  who 
is  just  at  hand? 

But  I  must  draw  toward  a  conclusion.  Rome 
has  annexed  to  her  conciliar  definitions  the 
anathema  sit:  let  him  be  anathema — that  un- 


62  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

fortunate  one  who  believes  not  the  foregoing 
ecclesiastically  defined  dogma.  The  Pauline 
and  Protestant  anathema  is,  'Tf  any  man  preach 
any  other  gospel  unto  you  than  that  ye  have 
received,  let  him  be  anathema,"^'''  or,  'Tf  any 
mian  love  not  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  let  him  be 
anathema:  Maranatha."^'^  Jesus  himself  said, 
"Whosoever  shall  fall  on  this  stone  shall  be 
broken :  but  on  whomsoever  it  shall  fall,  it  will 
grind  him  to  powder."^^  It  is  the  divinely  fixed 
and  unchangeable  elements  of  the  living  Gos- 
pel, preachable  and  preached  for  the  salvation 
of  the  world,  as  they  center  in  the  historical 
Jesus,  the  Incarnate,  Atoning,  and  Risen  Sav- 
iour, altogether  lovely  and  lovable,  which,  if 
man  reject,  he,  by  his  irresponsiveness  to  the 
last  manifestation  of  love,  advertises  his  worth- 
lessness  and  irredeemableness  and  his  fitness 
for  the  refuse  heap  of  God.     It  is  Christianity 

*'^Gal.  i.  9.    ^i  Cor.  xvi.  22. 
"'Matt.  xxi.  44;  Lnke  xx.  18. 


And  His  Apostles  63 

as  religion  that  saves ;  without  it  the  soul  dies. 
That  the  Gospel,  notwithstanding  the  outstand- 
ing characteristics  of  modern  mind  and  life 
that  we  have  been  considering,  is  in  this  new 
century  renewing  its  youth  and  giving  promise 
of  universal  and  permanent  conquest,  as  of  the 
Absolute  Religion,  few  open-eyed  observers 
will  deny.  Christians, — the  one  Church  and 
family  of  God  in  the  earth, — are  recognizing 
the  law  of  love  as  binding  them  all  together 
and  as  binding  the  Body  of  Christ  to  the  world 
of  mankind;  Christian  missions  are  covering 
the  earth  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea ;  Christian 
philanthropy  is  the  noblest  and  most  conspic- 
uous mark  of  our  times.  That  the  twentieth 
century  will  witness  developments  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion  with  which  only  those  of  the  first 
will  be  comparable,  one  ventures  little  in  proph- 
esying. Christ  is  King  to-day  in  a  sense  and 
with  a  breadth  of  which  flaming  apocalyptists 
scarcely  dared  to  dream ;  and  perhaps  the  new 
century  shall 


64  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

Bring   forth   the    royal    diadem, 
And  crown  him  Lord  of  all. 

And  now  the  task  I  set  out  to  do  in  this 
initial  study  is  done.  In  meager  outHne  I  have 
sought  to  exhibit  the  essential  characteristics 
of  the  Christian  religion.  Its  Origin  has  been 
sought  in  the  love  of  God;  its  Means  in  the 
redemption  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  through 
his  Incarnation,  his  Atonement,  and  his  Resur- 
rection; its  End  in  the  founding  of  the  King- 
dom of  God  and  the  binding  of  men  to  God 
and  one  another  by  the  law  of  love.  *'Thy 
kingdom  come"  must  be  the  prayer  and  labor 
of  the  Church,  for  it  is  the  hope  of  the  world 
lying  in  the  wicked  one.  All  the  selfishness 
and  antagonisms  of  men  are  to  be  lost  in  the 
Kingdom  which  ruleth  over  all. 

I  may  close  with  a  repetition  of  the  definition 
which  alone  seems  to  me  to  do  justice  to  all  the 
elements  of  the  Christian  religion,  none  of 
which  may  be  omitted  without  fatal  injury : 

Christianity  is  the  religion  of  God's  redeem- 


And  His  Apostles  65 


ing  love,  manifested  in  the  Incarnate  life,  the 
Atoning  death,  and  the  glorious  Resurrection 
of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Founder  of  the  Kingdom 
of  God,  whose  citizens  are  become  sons  of  God 
by  the  power  of  his  Spirit,  and  brothers  of  all 
mankind. 
5 


II 

THE  VOCATION  OF  JESUS  THE 
PROOF  OF  HIS  GODHEAD 


THE  VOCATION  OF  JESUS  THE 
PROOF  OF  HIS  GODHEAD! 

"My   meat,"    said   Jesus,    ''is   to   do   the   will 
of  him  that  sent  me,  and  to  finish  his  work."^ 

^I  am  conscious  that  this  chapter  could  not  have  been 
written  without  the  perusal  of  Albrecht  Ritschl's  "Justi- 
fication and  Reconciliation."  I  have  had  before  me  a 
page  of  notes  made  just  after  the  book  was  read  about 
four  years  ago.  But  I  am  unable  to  make  detailed  ref- 
erences without  again  reading  a  large  volume,  into 
which  I  have  not  had  leisure  so  much  as  to  glance.  I 
shall  hope  that,  as  reflecting  my  own  convictions  stated 
in  my  own  way,  the  essay  is  not  the  worse  for  that. 
While  there  are  elements  of  the  Ritschlian  theology  that 
are  to  be  decisively  rejected,  I  am  confident  that  the 
judgment  of  those  who  regard  Ritschl  as  the  greatest 
and  most  influential  German  theologian  since  Schleier- 
macher  is  correct.  He  Is  destined,  I  think,  to  an  increas- 
ing influence  in  America,  and,  discriminatingly  used,  is 
capable,  with  Kaftan,  of  rendering  the  largest  service  to 
evangelical  orthodoxy. — J.  J.  T. 

'John  Iv.  34. 

(69) 


70  The  Christianity  of  Christ 


Though  occurring  in  the  Fourth  Gospel,  this 
is  a  saying  of  the  Lord's  that  bears  the  mint- 
mark  of  his  coinage  as  indisputably  as  the 
most  luminous  of  the  self-attesting  sayings  of 
the  Synoptical  Gospels.  It  passes  current 
without  question  or  suspicion  even  among 
the  hostile  critics  of  the  Gospel  in  which  it 
occurs,  as  having  the  exact  and  full  value  of 
the  mind  of  Christ.  It  was  evidently  stere- 
otyped from  his  lips;  for  the  record  in  which 
it  appears  is  evidence  sufficient  that,  so  far 
were  those  who  heard  it  from  being  equal  to 
its  invention,  that  they  wxre  quite  incapable 
of  understanding  it  after  it  was  spoken  into 
their  ears.  Its  inimitable  originality  betrays 
its  source  and  stamps  its  parentage  to  the  end 
of  time.  Whether  we  look  upon  it  as  a  tele- 
scopic or  as  a  microscopic  text, — as  bringing 
nigh  the  great  which  is  very  far  off,  or  as  mak- 
ing large  and  discernible  the  delicate  and  ob- 
scure that  is  just  at  hand, — it  is  the  deepest 
disclosure  of  the  fountains  of  our  Lord's  life. 


And  His  Apostles  *]i 

We  have  all  seen  in  the  Roman  churches  the 
pictures    of    the    "bleeding    heart"    of    Jesus. 
Garments  and   flesh  are  torn   aside,   and   the 
quivering  heart,  from  which  the  blood  drops 
are  falling,  is  exposed  impaled  upon  the  spear 
point.     Not  this  hideous  daub  of  the  meaner 
sanctuaries,  nor  the  masterpiece  of  the  great 
cathedrals,   affords   the   true   insight   into   the 
interior   depths   of   Christ's    life.     Rather   he 
himself   deliberately   puts   the   veil   aside   and 
invites  the  adoring  gaze  of  his  disciples  when 
he  says,  "My  meat  is  to  do  the  will  of  him 
that  sent  me."     From  the  psychological  point 
of  viev/,  these  words  open  up  our  Lord's  life 
to  its  innermost  core.     The  setting,   with  all 
the  wealth  of  delicate  and  natural  detail  that 
marked    the    interview    with    the    woman    of 
Samaria,  is  evidently  historical.     The  errand 
of  those  who  went  away  into  the  city  to  buy 
meat  and  who,  on  their  return,  obtusely  asked, 
"Hath  any  man  brought  him  aught  to  eat?" 
is  the  last  circumstance  that  makes  inevitable 


72  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

the  saying  itself  and  our  belief  of  it  as  a  word 
from  the  mouth  of  Jesus.  Its  force  and  com- 
pass entitle  it  to  be  used  as  the  key  to  unlock 
the  sacred  secret  of  the  person  and  life  of 
Jesus. 

What  does  it  mean  ? 

I.  It  cannot  mean  less  than  this,  that  the 
consciously  and  deliberately  chosen,  and  stead- 
ily pursued,  personal  end  and  purpose  of  Je- 
sus sei-ved  him  for  satisfaction  and  sustenance. 
To  do  the  will  of  him  that  sent  him  proved 
to  be  his  soul's  meat,  the  solid  satisfaction  of 
his  soul's  need,  the  one  food  that  answered 
the  ultimate  demands  of  his  nature. 

I.  How  did  this  doing  of  the  will  of  an- 
other meet  the  deepest  needs  of  Jesus'  own 
soul?     In  a  threefold  way. 

(i)  It  was  a  response,  of  course,  to  the 
demands  of  his  own  nature;  it  was  the  devel- 
opment of  his  own  gift.  Even  skeptical  in- 
vestigators like  Wernle  recognize  in  Jesus 
what  they  are  pleased  to  denominate  a  super- 


And  His  Apostles  73 

human  consciousness.  That  there  were  very 
extraordinary  elements  in  that  consciousness 
the  most  casual  reader  of  the  Gospels  must 
recognize.  The  scientific  method  demands 
that  we  begin  by  taking  full  and  exact  account 
of  these  elements.  It  is  outraged  when  the 
claims  of  Jesus  are  set  aside  without  taking 
account  of  his  mind  and  his  work.  From 
this  unique  consciousness  of  Jesus,  according- 
ly, we  may  take  our  point  of  departure. 

Jesus  was  true  to  God  because  he  was  true 
to  himself,  and  did  not,  wdiile  obeying  a  wnll 
consciously  other  than  his  own  and  divine, 
substitute  for  his  own  conscious  nature,  gift, 
and  call  something  alien  to  them.  What  Je- 
sus was  and  did  was  primarily  of  himself  and 
as  himself;  otherwise  the  development  and 
course  of  his  life  become  unreality  and  mock- 
ery. There  are  forms  of  statement  of  the 
Anselmic  doctrine  of  atonement  which  lend 
countenance  to  the  view  that  Jesus  could  stand 
in  the  place  of  another  only  because  he  had 


74  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

no  post  of  his  own  to  occupy.  There  is  a 
point  of  view  in  which  that  is,  no  doubt,  pro- 
foundly true.  But,  for  my  present  purpose, 
it  must  also  be  made  evident  that  the  pecul- 
iarity of  Jesus'  consciousness  was  that  it  ap- 
pointed for  him  a  path  so  unique  that  he  alone 
could  w^alk  in  it.  Duty,  in  general,  is  of  the 
higher  to  the  lower:  of  the  Maker  and  Mas- 
ter to  the  creature  and  servant.  What  the 
latter  can  render  is  only  a  meed  of  service  in 
recognition  of  a  debt  of  gratitude  already  in- 
curred. But  original  and  absolute  duty  is  of 
the  Superior  to  the  inferior,  apart  from  the 
character  and  conduct  of  the  latter.  Now  Je- 
sus found  his  consciousness  possessed  of  this 
peculiar  quality  of  absolute  duty,  penetrating 
his  soul  to  its  depths,  and  dominating  from 
first  to  last  the  activities  of  his  life.  The  pe- 
culiarity of  this  self-consciousness  of  Jesus, 
as  we  may  gather  from  almost  every  page  of 
the  Gospels,  was  that  while  it  was  native,  per- 
sonal, original,  and  gathered  the  true  law  of 


And  His  Apostles  75 

its  active  expression  from  within,  it  was  at 
the  same  time  identical  with  the  will  of  God, 
objectively  imposed  and  recognized  as  such. 

(2)  Thus,  though  in  the  fullest  sense  spring- 
ing from  the  deepest  wells  of  his  selfhood, 
it  was  not  selfish,  for  this  unique  personal  end 
and  purpose  found  its  satisfaction, — still  per- 
sonal, if  one  insist  upon  it, — in  an  absolute 
and  unvarying  devotion  to  the  welfare  of  oth- 
ers. "He  that  saveth  his  life  shall  lose  it,  and 
he  that  loseth  his  life  shall  save  it,"  was  an 
axiom  of  the  ethical  and  religious  life  born 
of  Jesus'  crystalline  knowledge  of  his  own 
soul  and  the  lav;s  of  its  healthful  and  sinless 
activity.  This  rule  of  life-saving  which  Jesus 
lays  down  so  unwaveringly  for  the  observance 
of  his  disciples  was  tested  to  the  uttermost  in 
his  own  experience.  In  this  the  Master  was 
not  better  than  his  disciples;  it  was  enough 
for  Jesus  that  he  be  as  his  disciples.  Initial 
victories  v/ere  won  in  the  temptations  of  the 
wilderness;  the  final,  at  Gethsemane  and  Gal- 


76  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

vary;  but  the  law  was  formulated  in  the  ex- 
perience of  Christ  long  before  these  final  crises. 
If  at  the  last,  when  the  price  of  loyalty  to  the 
law  of  his  selfhood,  which  was  at  the  same 
time  devotion  to  his  kind  and,  as  will  be  noted 
explicitly,  unqualified  submission  to  God,  was 
the  sacrifice  of  his  life,  there  was  a  momentary 
faltering  in  the  Garden  or  on  the  Cross,  that 
faltering  was  but  momentary,  and  the  selfhood 
of  Jesus  followed  the  law  of  its  absolute  de- 
velopment in  a  final  sacrifice  of  self  for  the 
highest  good  of  the  race  of  which  he  was  a 
member. 

(3)  The  native  law  of  his  selfhood  not  only 
demanded  complete  devotion  to  the  good  of 
his  kind  but  found  itself  identical  with  the 
execution  of  the  plan  and  purpose  of  God. 
This  was  the  third  moment  in  the  satisfying 
sustenance  of  him  whose  meat  was  eminently 
''to  do  the  will  of  him  that  sent  him,  and  to 
finish  his  work."  That  "man  shall  live  by 
every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth 


And  His  Apostles  77 

of  God,"^  Jesus  had  adopted  as  the  law  of  his 
life  at  the  very  beginning  of  his  ministry; 
"Nevertheless,  not  my  will  but  thine  be  done"* 
was  the  word  of  acceptance  of  the  Father's  will 
in  the  Garden;  and  "the  prince  of  this  world 
cometh  and  hath  nothing  in  me"^  was  the 
final  verdict  of  his  consciousness  as  he  went 
forth  to  betrayal  and  crucifixion. 

(i)  The  law  of  his  own  self-development; 
(2)  the  law  of  absolute  devotion  to  the  wel- 
fare of  humanity ;  and  ( 3 )  the  law  of  complete 
abandonment  and  committal  to  the  will  of 
God :  these  three  were  completely  one  law  in 
the  inmost  nature  of  Jesus  dictating  and  con- 
trolling his  purpose  and  plan. 

2.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  point  out  that 
this  triple-stranded  single  law  of  Jesus'  nature 
applies  equally  to  Doing  and  Suffering  as  parts 


'Matt.  iv.  4;  Luke  iv.  4;  Deut.  viii.  3. 

*Luke  xxii.  42;  Matt.  xxvi.  39,  42,  44;  Mark  xiv.  36. 

^John  xiv.  30. 


78  The  Cliristianity  of  Christ 

of  his  One  Obedience.  Indeed,  suffering  as 
accepted  and  ethically  satisfying  and  helpful  is 
itself,  in  a  sense,  active.  As  dumb  submission 
to  the  inevitable  it  has  no  moral  value,  and  is 
sometimes  illustrated  even  in  the  case  of  the 
lower  animals.  Mental  suffering  as  mere 
w^eakness,  tending  toward  and  degenerating 
into  disease,  is  ethically  indifferent.  It  may 
be  simple  breaking  down  and  surrender  in  the 
presence  of  the  tasks  that  are  refused  and  set 
aside  because  of  their  assumed  incommensura- 
bility with  our  resources  and  strength.  Then 
it  becomes  morally  culpable.  None  of  these 
characteristics  attached  to  the  suffering  of  Je- 
sus. It  was  an  active  entrance  into  the  sor- 
rows of  the  world  and  a  positive  acceptance 
of  the  burdens  of  humanity.  It  was  the  delib- 
erate assumption  of  the  office  of  universal  Sin- 
bearer.  No  man  took  his  life  from  him.  He 
laid  it  down  of  himself.  If  it  be  not  profana- 
tion to  liken  the  highest  human  suffering  to 
that  of  him  who  trod  the  winepress  alone, — in 


^liid  His  Apostles  79 

a  majestic  solitude  of  suffering  to  which  there 
is  no  human  approach  or  parallel, — then  Wash- 
ington, as  he  marked  the  bloody  footprints  of 
his  men  in  the  snows  of  Valley  Forge  and  yet 
held  them  to  the  work  of  the  Revolution ;  then 
General  Lee,  as  he  moved  among  the  retreat- 
ing regiments  from  Gettysburg,  saying,  "Boys, 
it  was  all  my  fault,"  and  assuming  a  blame  that 
did  not  belong  to  him ;  then  sad-eyed  and  sad- 
hearted  President  Lincoln,  as  he  wrote  words 
of  immortal  consolation  to  that  Massachusetts 
mother  who  had  given  five  sons  to  die  for  their 
country;  then  these,  and  such  as  these,  may 
know  some  measure  of  the  active  exercise 
of  that  vicarious  suffering  which  in  the  Su- 
preme Person  of  history  wrought  the  redemp- 
tion of  the  world.  Vicarious  suffering,  so  far 
from  being  the  blot,  is  the  glory  of  the  moral 
realm.  Its  superlative  exercise  in  Jesus  is  a 
true  mark  of  his  deity.  It  is  the  outermost 
rim  of  his  life,  encircling  and  binding  together 
its   manifold   activities,    as   these   are   offered 


8o  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

unto  God  upon  the  altar  of  humanity,  redeemed 
and  sanctified  by  his  blood. 

3.  The  outward  croAvn  and  completion  of 
the  law  of  Christ's  life  is  found  in  prayer, 
which  was  for  him  meat  since  it  was  the  feed- 
ing of  his  soul  on  the  will  of  God.  The  writer 
of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  has  correctly 
seized  the  secret.  Jesus,  in  the  days  of  his 
flesh,  when  he  had  offered  up  prayers  and 
supplications  with  strong  crying  and  tears  unto 
him  that  was  able  to  save  him  from  death, 
^'was  heard/'^  His  Father  heard  and  an- 
swered with  an  unmistakable  revelation  of  his 
will,  with  which  that  of  his  Son  came  into 
immediate  accord.  Prayer  was  for  Jesus  the 
active  outgoing  of  his  soul  in  its  highest  and 
best,  and  always  finally  victorious,  moods  to 
discover  the  will  of  God,  to  penetrate  and,  as 
it  were,  to  analyze  it  to  the  last  limit,  that  he 
might  arouse  and  reenforce  and  feed  his  ov;n 

''Heb.  V.  7. 


And  His  Apostles  8i 

will  by  the  realized  and  vivid  perception  of 
its  identity  with  the  Father's.  To  this  end, 
he  hesitated  not,  if  need  be,  to  spend  the  whole 
night  in  prayer,  as  before  the  choosing  of  the 
Twelve,  upon  whose  ministry  hung  the  final 
establishment  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  So 
far  is  this  exercise  of  prayer  from  being,  as 
alleged  by  Wernle  and  others,  the  proof  of 
our  Lord's  pure  and  dependent  humanity, — 
though,  on  one  side,  it  has  its  lessons  here,  too, 
— that  it  becomes  the  exalted  and  active  union 
with  God  which  attests  the  divine  heights  on 
which  our  Lord  dwelt  above  the  plane  of  mere 
manhood  and  affords  the  best  illustration  of 
the  purity  and  depth  of  that  unique  conscious- 
ness which  was  in  him.  In  this  he  is  the 
Apostle  and  High  Priest  of  our  profession, 
and  continues  to  this  day  the  exercise  of  his 
incommunicable  mediatorial  office.  Here  lie 
the  characteristics  which  constitute  him  the 
Representative  and  the  Redeemer  of  men. 

In  all  the  foregoing  we  may  see  the  equip- 
6 


82  1  lie  Cl.ristianity  of  Christ 

ment  of  the  One  Intercessor;  thus  are  we  led 
to 

II.  The  Isolation  and  Uniqueness  of  Christ's 
Vocation. 

In  a  twofold  sense  the  isolation  and  unique- 
ness of  Christ's  vocation  now  become  apparent : 
( I )  he  did  not  share  it  with  any  other  messen- 
ger of  God  however  exalted,  as  Moses  or  Eli- 
jah; (2)  it  was  a  vocation  for  him  supreme 
and  solitary,  so  that  he  was  incapable  of  divid- 
ing it  with  any  other  calling,  coordinated  with 
it  or  subordinated  to  it.  Coordination  is  in 
itself  impossible;  subordination,  intolerable. 

I.  The  preceding  discussion  has  shown  the 
exalted  and  unsharable  uniqueness  of  the  mind 
of  Christ  in  its  consciousness  of  union  with 
God  and  of  the  identity  of  its  native  ends  with 
the  plans  and  purposes  of  God.  So  far  as  we 
can  penetrate  from  the  side  of  human  psychol- 
ogy, as  we  endeavor  to  gather  up  in  a  formula 
of  psychical  law  the  phenomena  of  the  con- 
sciousness of  Jesus  manifested  in  the  events 


And  His  Apostles  83 

and  sayings  recorded  in  the  Gospels,  this  pe- 
cuHar  experience  of  union  with  God,  and  of 
identity  of  purpose  with  him,  is  of  the  es- 
sence of  the  personaHty  of  the  God-man  in 
w^hom  the  divine  and  human  natures  were 
joined  together  in  an  indissoluble  copartner- 
ship. There  were  two  wills,  but  between 
them  complete  harmony  reigned, — nay,  abso- 
lute identity  subsisted;  this  harmony  and  iden- 
tity freely  proceeding  from  the  human  side 
in  its  essential  and  native  impulses  and  ends, 
and  from  the  divine  side  in  the  imposition 
and  penetration  of  the  law  of  an  absolute 
purpose  and  plan  of  God  that  encountered 
no  obstacle  or  hindrance  in  the  perfect  will  of 
Jesus. 

2.  But  the  uniqueness  of  Christ's  vocation 
appears  also  in  the  exclusion  of  all  other  ends. 

Ordinary  men,  and  even  men  of  genius,  may 
have  their  (i)  domestic,  (2)  social  or  civil, 
(3)  professional,  and  (4)  artistic  or  scientific, 
vocation.     These  may  be  but  ever  enlarging 


84  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

spheres  for  the  broadest  reaHzation  of  the  all 
but  infinite  riches  with  which  even  our  finite 
human  personality  is  dowered.  And  when  all 
are  entered  into,  the  conscious  possibilities  of 
the  person  remain  unexhausted. 

(i)  It  is  the  ordinary  duty  of  men  to  as- 
sume the  responsibilities  of  family  life.  He 
who  refuses  the  obligations  of  husband  and 
father  generally  condemns  his  own  nature  to 
a  stunted  and  one-sided  development.  God 
hath  set  the  solitary  in  the  family,  and  only 
in  the  blessed  companionships  of  that  circle 
is  the  perfection  of  normal  character  ordinari- 
ly possible.    This  is  the  law  ordained  of  God. 

(2)  Similarly,  one  must  enter  into  all  the 
duties  of  citizenship  and  assume  the  several 
relations,  and  consequent  obligations,  that 
arise  out  of  the  complex  organization  of  mod- 
ern society.  None  can  be  evaded  without 
guilt.  One's  best  judgment  and  influence,  ac- 
cording to  the  measure  of  his  ability  and  of 
that  station  in  life  wherein  it  has  pleased  God 


And  His  Apostles  85 

to  call  him  to  this  service,  must  be  given  to 
the  conduct  of  the  affairs  of  government,  lo- 
cal and  economical,  and  general  and  political. 
The  Christian,  in  particular,  according  to  the 
precepts  of  the  gospel,  must  always  be  the 
duty-doing  and  exemplary  citizen,  rendering 
unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's.  Only 
when  the  exactions  of  Caesar  carry  with  them 
the  impossibility  of  rendering  to  God  the 
things  that  are  God's  does  the  law  of  exemp- 
tion from  the  lower,  through  loyalty  and  de- 
votion to  the  higher,  come  into  play. 

(3)  Commonly  there  must  be  added  per- 
sonal devotion  to  a  specific  professional  or 
commercial  or  manufacturing  or  agricultural 
calling.  No  man,  with  a  sound  mind  in  a 
sound  body,  can  guiltlessly  be  an  idler  in  the 
vineyard  of  this  busy  world.  He  who  will  not 
work  must  not  eat.  He  has  no  right  to  im- 
pose his  maintenance  as  a  tax  upon  the  ener- 
gies and  resources  of  his  fellows. 

(4)  Beyond  all  these  spheres  of  domestic, 


S6  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

social,  and  business  life  may  lie  devotion  to 
science  and  art  (though,  in  special  instances, 
exclusive  devotion  to  these  by  the  professional 
artist  or  scientist  may  move  this  sphere  of 
activity  up  into  coincidence  with  the  third). 
Both  the  artistic  and  the  scientific  interest  and 
activity  answer  to  legitimate  developments  of 
human  faculty;  they  lie  nearest  to  the  gener- 
ality and  disinterestedness  of  religion  itself, 
and  often  afford  a  field  for  all  noble  human 
endeavor  short  of  the  noblest.  They  are  not 
to  be  excluded  from  the  life  plan  of  the  normal 
man  who  seeks  to  make  the  most  of  himself, 
and  by  making  the  most  of  himself  to  be  worth 
most  to  his  kind. 

But  when  we  examine  the  record  of  Christ's 
activities,  we  find  that  he  deliberately  exclud- 
ed and  refused  all  these  spheres  of  development 
and  usefulness, — a  plan  of  life  that  could  be 
excused  and  explained  only  by  the  superiority 
and  dominant  exclusiveness  of  his  unique  pur- 
pose and  end. 


And  His  Apostles  87 

( 1 )  Christ  accepted  no  domestic  vocation. 
He  speedily  detached  himself  from  the  family 
into  which  he  was  born  without  founding  a 
family  of  his  own.  The  whole  Romish  con- 
ception of  the  influence  of  the  Virgin  with  her 
Son,  and  of  her  controlling  position  as  the 
"queen  of  heaven,"  is  belied  by  the  express 
representations  of  the  Gospels,  and  by  the 
unique  consciousness  of  Jesus  which  united 
him  with  God  rather  than  with  his  human 
mother. 

(2)  Our  Lord  peremptorily  refused  a  civil 
vocation,  as  reformer,  economist,  or  judge.  He 
was  neither  a  socialist  nor  a  labor  leader,  as 
some  of  the  recent  superficial  interpreters  of 
the  gospel  would  lead  us  to  esteem  the  carpen- 
ter of  Nazareth,  as  he  is  assumed  to  have  been. 
Such  narrowing  of  his  aim  was  incompatible 
with  the  depth  and  universality  of  his  con- 
sciously pursued  personal  purpose  and  end. 
As  a  meliorist,  every  specific  alleviation  of  the 
ills  of  humanity  was  included  in  the  ultimate 


88  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

results  of  his  work;  but  the  universal  and 
eternal  significance  of  that  work  could  not  be 
sacrificed  to  the  temporary  role  of  a  social  or 
political  emancipator  in  Palestine  or  the  Ro- 
man Empire.  Jesus,  though  he  announced 
the  principles  that  carried  in  them  the  doom 
and  extinction  of  human  slavery  throughout 
the  earth,  had  not  one  word  to  say  about  the 
evils  of  the  slavery  that  honeycombed  the  Ro- 
man Empire  in  his  day.  He  would  not  be 
the  divider  of  estates  between  quarreling  and 
covetous  litigants,  though  announcing  every 
day  the  laws  of  the  universal  brotherhood 
which  he  came  to  establish.  As  statesman,  or 
warrior,  or  social  emancipator  and  reorganizer, 
for  his  own  people  or  a  wider  commonwealth, 
he  doubtless  might  have  accomplished  much. 
It  does  not  require  much  delving  beneath  the 
surface  of  the  Gospels  to  discover  that  a  real 
temptation  for  Jesus  lay  in  this  direction.  But, 
had  he  yielded,  he  could  not  have  been  the 
Saviour  of  the  world.     Sinking  himself  into 


And  His  Apostles  89 

the  common  categories,  he  would  have  sacri- 
ficed the  unique  and  divine  ends  of  his  mission. 
(3)  He  did  not  engage  himself  in  systemat- 
ic fashion  with  the  sacred  learning  of  the  Jews 
— like  Paul.  It  is  now  the  fashion  to  assign 
to  Paul  (as  Wernle  does)  the  credit  of  the 
universalization  of  Christianity.  I  would  not 
seek  to  detract  from  his  merit.  He  was  pos- 
sibly the  greatest  man  that  ever  lived;  but  no 
one  knew  better  than  he  that  his  Master  was 
more  than  man.  He  had  problems  of  infinitely 
perplexing  detail  to  solve;  he  had  the  most  in- 
veterate prejudices  of  human  nature  to  over- 
come, first  in  himself  and  afterwards  in  his  co- 
laborers  or  their  professed  disciples;  but  there 
is  not  an  epistle  of  Paul's  that  does  not  show 
that  this  scholar  was  utterly  incapable  of 
founding  Christianity.  He  was  capable  of 
understanding  and  propagating  it,  indeed,  as 
few  of  his  own  time  or  since  have  understood 
and  preached  it.  But  founding  it  is  quite  a 
different  thing.     It  is  not  overly  difficult  to 


po  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

construct  from  data  furnished  by  Paul  him- 
self the  picture  of  what  his  life  would  have 
been  without  Christ.  A  Pharisaic  legalist  of 
unusual  sincerity  and  strictness,  a  doctor  of 
the  law,  a  greater  Gamaliel  serving  his  people 
wdth  fidelity  and  zeal, — these  are  the  rough 
outlines  whose  details  one  need  not  stay  to 
fill  in. 

(4)  Christ  was  no  apostle  of  art  or  of 
science.  Great  and  beneficent  as  is  such  an 
apostleship,  its  noblest  exemplars  would  con- 
fess the  inferiority  of  themselves  and  their 
work  to  the  Christ  and  his  mission.  Yet  there 
are  not  lacking  those  who  rise  up  to  lament: 
the  absence  of  aesthetic  and  scientific  elements 
from  the  gospel  that  Christ  preached,  and  to 
condemn  the  provincial  barbarism  that  ex- 
cluded such  high  aims  from  the  sphere  of  his 
activities.  As  if  the  sense  of  the  beautiful,  of 
which  he  who  saw  more  loveliness  in  the  lily 
of  the  field  than  in  the  royal  array  of  Solo- 
mon was   certainly   not   devoid,   could   deflect 


And  His  Apostles  91 

this  sensitive  soul  filled  with  sympathy  for 
human  suffering  and  sin  from  his  task  as  Re- 
deemer of  men !  As  if  the  perfecting  of 
knowledge  were  comparable  with  the  great 
deliverance  which  he  came  to  work  out  and 
proclaim !  As  if  there  were  not  a  heavy  in- 
dictment lying  against  the  mere  sestheticism 
and  culture  of  the  day  because  of  its  indiffer- 
ence to  the  moral  ideal  and  its  insensibility  to 
the  needs  of  suffering  men! 

Thus  I  may  reach,  in  explicit  and  final 
statement, 

III.  The  Unique  Vocation  of  Jesus  the 
Proof  of  his  Godhead. 

I.  It  was,  first  of  all,  such  a  proof,  or  in- 
ward demonstration  and  conviction,  for  him- 
self. His  unique  consciousness  and  gift  fixed 
the  plane  and  type  of  his  temptations.  No 
inward  experiences  of  Jesus  were  more  real, 
or  entered  more  intimately  into  the  depths  of 
his  consciousness,  than  these  conflicts,  whose 
actual  occurrence  is  the  only  warrant  or  ex- 


92  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

planatlon  of  their  incorporation  in  the  narra- 
tives of  the  Gospels.  When  we  read,  **he  was 
tempted  in  all  points  like  as  we  are,'*  it  is  im- 
possible to  conceive  that  Jesus,  perfect  physical 
man  though  he  was,  had  any  real  temptation 
in  the  direction  of  sensuality.  Whatever  mere- 
ly theoretical  possibilities  must  be  allowed,  to 
guard  his  absolute  freedom  and  his  perfect  man- 
hood, the  trials  that  assailed  him  arose  from  a 
totally  different  quarter.  As  a  human  being,  his 
temptations  lay  in  determining  the  career  that 
was  demanded  by  the  unique  elements  of  his 
consciousness.  And  here,  it  may  be  added,  the 
struggle  of  his  human  faculties  did  not  arise 
from  a  lack  of  harmony  with  the  Father's  will, 
consciously  apprehended  and  dissented  from, 
but  from  the  necessity  that  the  man,  who 
passed  through  all  the  stages  from  an  infantile 
to  a  mature  consciousness,  should  discover  and 
penetrate  the  Father's  will,  and  should  fix  him- 
self upon  the  certainties  of  his  own  course, 
prescribed  and  determined  alike  by  the  divine 


And  His  Apostles  93 

revelation  and  by  the  uniqueness  of  his  own 
personal  gift  and  call.  It  was  necessary  that 
Jesus  should  come  into  possession  of  himself; 
and  by  so  much  as  the  elements  of  his  per- 
sonality were  complex  and  unparalleled  was 
the  decision  as  to  his  actual  course  difficult. 
Here,  as  I  conceive,  lay  the  secret  of  the  fast- 
ing and  temptation  in  the  wilderness,  of  the 
nights  of  lonely,  wrestling  prayer  in  the  desert 
or  on  the  mountain,  of  the  prayers  and  strug- 
gle in  the  Garden.  He  discovered  unique  ele- 
ments in  his  consciousness  from  the  moment 
of  his  maturity — say,  from  the  time  of  the  visit 
to  the  temple  at  the  age  of  twelve ;  but  the 
interpretation  of  these  inward  deliverances, 
and  the  decisions  as  to  the  exact  conduct  de- 
manded by  them  at  the  several  crises  of  his 
life,  constitute  the  well-defined  field  of  the  pro- 
bation of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  The  most  uni- 
versal of  the  three  temptations  in  the  wilder- 
ness, and,  according  to  St.  Matthew,  the  last 
of  the  three,  was  the  vision  of  "all  the  king- 


94  ^/'^'  Christianity  of  Christ 

doms  of  the  world  and  the  glory  of  them"  f 
from  which  Jesus  turned  aside  to  begin  the 
epoch-making  and  world-shaking  proclama- 
tion, *'the  Kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand."^ 
Thus, 

2.  As  Founder  of  the  Rule  or  Kingdom  of 
God,  Christ's  purpose  and  plan  were  from  the 
beginning  superhuman,  transcending  the  sphere 
of  all  earthly  dominion  and  mere  kingly  con- 
quest. As  deliberately  undertaking  the  found- 
ing of  the  Kingdom  of  God  among  men, 
Christ's  personal  end  and  purpose  were  identi- 
cal with  God's,  not  only  in  quality,  but  in 
scope  and  extent.  No  other  servant  of  the  Al- 
mighty had  ever  dared  to  proclaim  his  mis- 
sion to  be  to  carry  the  work  of  God  through 
completely  to  a  perfect  accomplishment, — 
tsXsL^acd  is  the  verb  employed  in  John  iv.  34. 
This  testimony  of  Jesus  in  his  initial  preach- 
ing becomes  indeed  the  deepest  spirit  of  the 

'Matt.  iv.  8.       'Matt.  iv.  17. 


Aj!d  His  Apostles  95 

prophecy:  ''His  name  shall  be  called  Wonder- 
ful, Counsellor,  the  mighty  God,  the  everlast- 
ing Father,  the  Prince  of  Peace :  of  the  in- 
crease of  his  government  and  peace  there  shall 
be  no  end,  upon  the  throne  of  David,  and  upon 
his  kingdom  to  order  it,  and  to  establish  it 
with  judgment  and  with  justice  from  hence- 
forth even  forever."^ 

The  new  Kingdom  was  spiritual, — an  em- 
pire, first  of  all,  over  the  hearts  and  lives  of 
individual  men, — universal,  and  unending.  It 
could  not  be  measured  by  any  political  power 
or  glory,  however  unparalleled.  The  Papacy  at 
its  best  estate,  under  its  Gregories  and  Inno- 
cents and  Bonifaces,  could  not  contain  it;  the 
combined  ecclesiasticisms  of  to-day  cannot 
mark  its  boundaries.  Historically,  Christen- 
dom, expanding  from  the  band  of  Jerusalem 
disciples  that  chose  the  successor  to  Judas  to 
the  Church  Universal  and  the  Christian  insti- 

®Isa.  ix.  6,  7. 


9^  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

tutions  of  the  league  of  Christian  States  to-day, 
is  the  partial  and  still  incomplete  exposition  and 
vindication  of  the  Christ's  choice  and  purpose. 
If  prophecies  and  gospel  records  alike  raised 
questions  of  some  obscure  Jewish  writings 
alone,  then  the  flippant  Renan  and  the  ration- 
alistic Strauss  and  the  agnostic  Spencer,  and 
their  like,  might  be  entitled  to  their  say.  But 
in  so  far  as  History,  as  the  sphere  of  the  free, 
is  superior  to  Science,  as  the  sphere  of  the 
fixed ;  in  so  far  as  reason  and  conscience,  ethics 
and  religion,  as  Huxley  himself  began  to  sus- 
pect, afford  the  distinctive  theater  of  that  which 
is  properly  and  exclusively  human,  and  conse- 
quently the  high  point  of  humanity's  contact 
with  the  divine  and  of  God's  revelation  of  him- 
self to  man, — just  so  far  does  it  become  evi- 
dent that  the  nineteen  Christian  centuries, 
which  illustrate  the  vocation  and  achievements 
of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  attest  the  unity  and 
identity  of  his  plan  and  purpose  with  those  of 
God  himself.    And  it  doth  not  yet  appear  what 


And  His  Apostles  97 

Christendom, — the  reign  of  Christ  so  far  as 
visible, — shall  become,  extensively  and  inten- 
sively, in  the  earth.  Beyond  the  earthly  limits, 
human  thought  falters  and  fails  when  the  ef- 
fort is  made  to  conceive  what  the  Kingdom 
shall  be  wlien  Christ  shall  have  put  down  all 
rule  and  all  authority  and  power,  and  "shall 
have  delivered  up  the  Kingdom  to  God,  even 
the  Father.*'  Such  conceptions  of  St.  Paul's 
concerning  the  ultimate  destination  of  the 
Kingdom  (apart  from  all  theories  of  inspira- 
tion) are  certainly  entitled  to  outweigh  the 
modern  speculations,  about  which  there  is  not 
space  or  need  to  dispute  here,  and  to  determine 
the  true  interpretation  of  the  apocalyptic  ele- 
ments, which,  on  the  surface,  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  exhibits. 

3.  Even  in  the  Synoptical  Gospels,  and  in 
the  oldest  and  most  authentic  elements  of 
them,  Christ  is  represented  as  the  Bearer  of 
God's  Revelation  and  Sovereignty.  Here  the 
classical  passages  are  Matt.  xi.  25-30  and  Luke 
7 


9^  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

X.  21-24.  Of  the  pivotal  verse,  Matt.  xi.  2'/, 
Luke  X.  22,  Dr.  Sanday  says : 

"This  passage  is  one  of  the  best  authenti- 
cated in  the  Synoptic  Gospels.  It  is  found  in 
[nearly]  exact  parallelism  both  in  St.  Matthew 
and  St.  Luke;  and  is  therefore  known  to  have 
been  part  of  that  'collection  of  discourses' 
(cf.  Holtzmann,  Synopt.  Evangelien,  p.  184; 
Ewald,  Evangelien,  pp.  20,  225 ;  Weizsacker, 
pp.  166-169)  i^  ^11  probabihty  the  composition 
of  the  Apostle  St.  Matthew,  which  many  critics 
believe  to  be  the  oldest  of  all  the  evangelical 
documents.  And  yet  once  grant  the  authentic- 
ity of  this  passage,  and  there  is  nothing  in  the 
Johannean  Christology  that  it  does  not  cover. 
Even  the  doctrine  of  preexistence  seems  to  be 
implicitly  contained  in  it."^° 

In  short,  its  genuineness  is  indisputable.  It 
is  like  ''an  aerolite  from  the  Johannean  heav- 

^"The  Authorship  and  Historical  Character  of  the 
Fourth  Gospel,"  p.  109. 


And  His  Apostles  99 

en,"  says  Hase;  and  ''for  that  reason,"  adds 
Plummer,  who  cites  these  words  of  Hase's, 
"causes  perplexity  to  those  who  deny  the  sol- 
idarity between  the  Johannean  heaven  and  the 
Synoptic  earth. "^^  Keim  calls  it  "the  pearl  of 
the  sayings  of  Jesus." 

In  Matthew^  the  passage,  properly  arranged 
as  a  single  paragraph  in  the  Revised  Versions, 
both  the  English  and  the  American  Standard, 
reads : 

"At  that  season  Jesus  answered  and  said,  I 
thank  thee,  O  Father,  Lord  of  heaven  and 
earth,  that  thou  didst  hide  these  things  from 
the  wise  and  understanding,  and  didst  reveal 
them  unto  babes:  yea.  Father,  for  so  it  was 
well-pleasing  in  thy  sight.  All  things  have 
been  delivered  unto  me  of  my  Father:  and  no 
man  knoweth  the  Son,  save  the  Father;  neither 
doth  any  know  the  Father,  save  the  Son,  and 


"Commentary  on   Luke,   p.   282;   Hase,   "Gescliichte 
Jesu,"  p.  527. 


loo  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

he  to  whomsoever  the  Son  willeth  to  reveal 
him.  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are 
heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest.  Take 
my  yoke  upon  you,  and  learn  of  me;  for  I 
am  meek  and  lowly  in  heart:  and  ye  shall  find 
rest  unto  your  souls.  For  my  yoke  is  easy, 
and  my  burden  is  light. "^^ 

In  Luke,  the  complete  paragraph  reads : 
"In  that  same  hour  he  rejoiced  in  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  said,  I  thank  thee,  O  Father,  Lord 
of  heaven  and  earth,  that  thou  didst  hide  these 
things  from  the  wise  and  understanding,  and 
didst  reveal  them  unto  babes :  yea,  Father ;  for 
so  it  was  well-pleasing  in  thy  sight.  All 
things  have  been  delivered  unto  me  of  my  Fa- 
ther :  and  no  one  knoweth  who  the  Son  is,  save 
the  Father;  and  who  the  Father  is,  save  the 
Son,  and  he  to  whomsoever  the  Son  willeth  to 
reveal  him.  And  turning  to  the  disciples,  he 
said  privately,  Blessed  are  the  eyes  which  see 

^'Matt.  xi.  25-30. 


And  His  Apostles  loi 

the  things  that  ye  see:  for  I  say  unto  you  that 
many  prophets  and  kings  desired  to  see  the 
things  which  ye  see,  and  saw  them  not;  and  to 
hear  the  things  which  ye  hear,  and  heard  them 
not."^' 

In  Luke  the  passage  has  a  most  natural  and 
vivid  historical  setting  in  immediate  connec- 
tion with  the  return  of  the  Seventy,  though  in 
both  Matthew  and  Luke  it  is  associated  with 
the  denunciation  of  the  three  cities,  Chorazin, 
Bethsaida,  and  Capernaum.  "The  Seventy  re- 
turned with  joy,"  and  the  Master  said,  "In 
this  rejoice  not,  that  the  spirits  are  subject  unto 
you ;  but  rejoice  that  your  names  are  wTitten  in 
heaven/'^*  i.  e,,  "that  ye  are  destined  by  God/' 
says  Meyer,  "to  be  in  the  future  participators 
in  the  eternal  Messianic  life."  In  that  very 
hour  Jesus  also  exulted  ( T^j/a/lXtdcraro) .  His 
own  divine  exaltation  of  joy  is  closely  and  ex- 
pressly connected  with  the  return  and  rejoicing 

^'Luke  X.  21-24,  both  Revisions. 
"Luke  X.  17-20. 


I02  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

of  the  Seventy.  According  to  the  reading  of 
the  Sinaitic  and  Vatican  fourth  century  manu- 
scripts and  of  other  uncials,  which  have  de- 
termined the  text  translated  in  our  Revised 
Versions,  this  rejoicing  was  "in  the  Holy  Spir- 
it." That  is,  the  ecstatic  and  exultant  state  of 
Jesus  was  recognized  as  the  consequence  of  an 
immediate  indwxlling  and  inspiration  by  the 
Spirit  of  God.  In  the  success  of  the  mis- 
sion of  the  Seventy,  Jesus  had  ''beheld  Satan 
fallen  as  lightning  from  heaven."  In  this  hour 
of  assured  triumph  of  the  Kingdom,  and  of 
the  competence  of  the  human  agents  through 
whom  the  prince  and  power  of  darkness  must 
be  overthrown,  Jesus  and  the  Seventy  enjoyed 
a  baptism  of  mighty  joy,  which,  in  the  case  of 
Jesus,  at  least,  was  directly  due  to  his  posses- 
sion of  the  Spirit  of  God.  Nothing  distantly 
resembling  this  is  recorded  of  Jesus  anywhere 
else  in  the  Gospels.  It  might  almost  be  con- 
sidered the  crisis  of  his  Spiritual  Transfigura- 
tion, of  which  his  Bodily  Transfiguration  was 


And  His  Apostles  103 

the  adumbration  and  symbol.  In  that  moment 
of  supreme  exultation,  Jesus  burst  forth,  "I 
make  public  acknowledgment  of  thy  glory,  I 
give  thee  praise  (s^oizo?.oyoviiai) ,  O  Father, 
Lord  of  heaven  and  earth."  It  is  in  his  char- 
acter as  Universal  Sovereign  that  the  Father 
is  here  addressed  by  his  Son.  ''All  things," 
Jesus  declares,  ''have  been  delivered  unto  me 
of  my  Father" :  not  simply  the  pofcstas  reve- 
landi,  though  the  connection  suggests  this  as 
a  primary  reference.  He  announces  himself  as 
the  Bearer  of  the  perfect  revelation  of  God  and 
of  the  Divine  Sovereignty  in  all  things  per- 
taining to  the  establishment  and  welfare  of 
the  Kingdom. ^^ 

^'"It  is  quite  as  unwarrantable  to  limit  -Kavra  in  anj' 
way  whatever,  as  it  is  to  take  ■nape(S6di]  as  referring  to 
the  revelation  of  the  doctrine  (Grotius,  Kuinoel,  and 
others),  or  to  the  representation  of  the  highest  spiritual 
truths  (Keim),  which  Christ  is  supposed  to  have  been 
appointed  to  communicate  to  mankind.  It  is  not  even 
to  be  restricted  to  all  human  souls  (Gess).  What 
Jesus  indicates  and  has  in  view  is  the  full  power  with 


i04  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

Moreover,  he  speaks  out  of  the  richness  and 
fulhiess  of  a  superhuman  and  divine  conscious- 
ness whose  contents  he  is  well  aware  are  be- 
yond all  natural  human  ken,  and  open  only  to 
the  eye  of  God :  ''no  one  knoweth  who  the  Son 
is,  save  the  Father:  and  who  the  Father  is, 
save  the  Son,  and  he  to  whomsoever  the  Son 
willeth  to  reveal  him."  The  passage  asserts 
a  complete  mutual  knowledge,  from  which  all 
others  are  excluded,  of  the  nature,  thought, 
counsel,  action,  purpose,  and  end  of  the  Father 
by  the  Son,  and  of  the  Son  by  the  FatherJ 


16 


which,  in  sending  him  forth,  the  Father  is  understood 
to  have  invested  the  Son,  a  power  to  dispose  of  every- 
thing so  as  to  promote  the  object  for  which  he  came. 
Jesus  speaks  thus  in  the  consciousness  of  the  universal 
authority  (xxviii.  t8;  Heb.  ii.  8)  conferred  upon  him, 
from  which  nothing  is  exckided  (John  xiii.  3,  xvi.  15)  ; 
for  he  means  to  say,  that  between  him  and  the  Father 
there  exists  such  a  relation  that  no  one  knows  the  Son, 
and  so  on," — Meyer,  Commentary  on  Matthew,  Ameri- 
can ed.,  p.  231. 

"Where  Luke  has    yivciCKei  tIq  eanv  6   vide,    Matthew 
has  eTTfytvuGKet  rbv  vl6v.     Matthew's  compound  verb  an- 


And  His  Apostles  105 

In  Luke,  this  profound  fact  and  truth  and 
its  consequences,  visible  even  in  the  time  of 
our  Lord  and  his  apostles,  are  represented  as 
the  secret  hidden  from  the  prophets  and  kings 
of  the  old  dispensation;  in  Matthew  the  uni- 
versal invitation  of  the  Gospel  is  directly  based 
on  the  completeness  of  this  mutual  knowledge 
of  the  Father  and  the  Son  and  the  identity  of 
their  nature,  purposes,  and  ends :  ''Come  unto 
me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and 
I  will  give  you  rest.  Take  my  yoke  upon  you, 
and  learn  of  me;  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  in 
heart:  and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your  souls. 
For  my  yoke  is  easy,  and  my  burden  is  light.'* 

4.  Thus  as  the  Founder  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God  and  the  sole  Bearer  of  the  perfect  Revela- 
tion of  the  Father  and  of  that  Father's  Sov- 
ereignty, Jesus  is  the  one  Ambassador  of  heav- 
en, the  Son  and  heir  as  distinguished  from  all 

swers  to  Luke's  rig.  "Both,"  remarks  Plummer,  Com- 
mentary in  loco,  "might  be  translations  of  the  same 
Aramaic." 


io6  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

other  servants,  in  whom  God  makes  manifest 
and  effective  in  a  wholly  adequate,  unique,  and 
original  way  his  own  eternal  end  and  purpose 
of  love  toward  all  mankind.  The  fabric  of  the 
whole  mediatorial  activity  of  Jesus,  in  life  and 
death,  in  resurrection  and  ascension,  in  his 
session  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Majesty  on 
high,  in  all  that  he  was,  taught,  and  did,  con- 
stitutes the  medium  and  material  of  God's  per- 
fect revelation  of  himself.  Consequently  Jesus 
could  say,  "He  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the 
Father,"^^  and  "I  and  my  Father  are  one."^^ 
Hence,  in  a  word,  his  Godhead  affords  the  sole 
possible  ground  and  explanation  of  his  voca- 
tion and  work  as  the  Revealer  of  God  and  the 
Founder  of  the  eternal  divine  Kingdom;  and 
"all  men  should  honor  the  Son  even  as  they 
honor  the  Father."^^ 

"John  xiv.  9;  xii.  45.    ^*John  x.  30.      ^^ohn  v.  23. 


Ill 

THE  FOUNDATION  OF  CHRISTEN- 
DOM 


THE  FOUNDATION   OF   CHRISTEN- 
DOM 

When  one  reads  the  first  chapter  of  First 
Thessalonians,  he  is  probably  perusing  the  first 
page  of  the  New  Testament  that  was  commit- 
ted to  writing.  There  may  be  materials  in  the 
Synoptical  Gospels  that  assumed  written  form 
at  an  earlier  date,  but  no  one  of  our  Gospels  in 
its  present  shape  is  as  old  as  this  first  letter 
from  the  pen  of  the  Apostle  Paul.  Written, 
say,  within  twenty  years  of  the  close  of  our 
Lord's  ministry  and  earthly  life,  First  Thes- 
salonians associates  Jesus  with  God.  The 
Church  of  the  Thessalonians  is  "in  God  the 
Father  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ."^  The  first 
sentence  after  the  salutation  mentions  the  Per- 
sons of  the  Trinity,  if  I  may  here  by  anticipa- 
tion  use   the   language   of   later   ecclesiastical 

^i  Thess.  i.  i. 

(109) 


no  The  Cliristianity  of  Christ 

dogma,  on  this  wise,  ''We  give  thanks  to  God 
always  for  you  all,  making  mention  of  you 
in  our  prayers;  remembering  without  ceasing 
your  work  of  faith,  and  labor  of  love,  and  pa- 
tience of  hope  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  in  the 
sight  of  God  and  our  Father;  knowing,  breth- 
ren beloved,  your  election  of  God,  how  that 
our  gospel  came  not  unto  you  in  word  only, 
but  also  in  power,  and  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
in  much  assurance."^  The  apostle  describes 
the  Thessalonian  Christians  as  ''imitators  of 
us,  and  of  the  Lord,  having  received  the  word 
in  much  affliction,  v/ith  joy  of  the  Holy 
Ghost."^  In  the  final  verses  of  this  short  chap- 
ter, the  elements  of  the  gospel, — the  word  of 
the  Lord  that  sounded  out  in  Macedonia  and 
Achaia  and  through  the  Roman  Empire, — are 
epitomized.  The  Thessalonians  "turned  to 
God  from  idols  to  serve  the  living  and  true 
God,  and  to  wait  for  his  Son  from  heaven, 
whom  he  raised  from  the  dead,  even  Jesus, 

'i  Thess.  i.  2-5.       'i  Thess.  i.  6. 


Ajid  His  Apostles  m 

who  delivers  us  from  the  wrath  to  come."* 
If  we  analyze  these  passages  never  so  briefly 
and  superficially,  we  find  that  God  is  so  easily 
and  naturally  spoken  of  as  ''the  Father"  and 
"our  Father,"  that  the  teaching  of  Jesus  con- 
cerning the  Fatherhood  of  God  is  historically 
presupposed,  prior  in  time  to  the  writing  of 
this  Thessalonian  letter,  though  later  reduced 
to  writing  in  the  Gospels  we  have.  The  Fa- 
therhood was  of  the  essence  of  St.  Paul's 
preaching,  though  he  was  not  one  of  the 
Twelve,  and  was  a  commonplace  of  the  gos- 
pel received  among  the  Thessalonians.  The  mis- 
sion of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  the  power,  joy, 
and  assurance  which  he  brings  to  all  Christians, 
are  appealed  to,  also,  as  a  common  experience 
and  possession  of  the  Church,  and  Jesus  is  al- 
ready "the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  in  whom,  with 
the  Father,  the  Church  exists.  On  the  final 
passage  cited  (verses  9,  10)  Harnack  makes  a 
more  impressive  comment  than  any  I  can  give : 

*i  Thess.  i.  9,  10. 


112  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

"Here  we  have  the  mission  preaching  to 
pagans  in  a  nutshell.  The  'living  and  true 
God'  is  the  first  and  final  thing;  the  second  is 
Jesus,  the  Son  of  God,  the  judge,  who  se- 
cures us  against  the  wrath  to  come,  and  is 
therefore  'J^^us,  the  Lord/  To  the  living 
God,  who  is  now  made  known,  we  owe  faith 
and  devoted  service;  to  God's  Son  as  Lord, 
our  due  is  faith  and  hope. 

''The  contents  of  this  brief  message, — ob- 
jective and  subjective,  positive  and  negative, — 
are  inexhaustible.  Yet  the  message  itself  is 
thoroughly  compact  and  complete.  It  is  ob- 
jective and  positive  as  the  message  of  the  only 
God,  who  is  spiritual,  omnipresent,  omniscient, 
omnipotent,  the  Creator  of  heaven  and  earth, 
the  Lord  and  Father  of  men,  and  the  great 
disposer  of  human  history;  furthermore,  it  is 
the  message  which  tells  of  Jesus  Christ,  the 
Son  of  God,  w^ho  came  from  heaven,  made 
known  the  Father,  died  for  sins,  rose,  sent  the 
Spirit  hither,  and  from  his  seat  at  God's  right 


And  His  Apostles  113 

hand  will  return  for  the  judgment;  finally,  it 
is  the  message  of  salvation  brought  by  Jesus 
the  Saviour,  that  is,  freedom  from  the  tyranny 
"of  demons,  sin,  and  death,  together  with  the 
gift  of  life  eternal. 

"Then  it  is  objective  and  negative,  inas- 
much as  it  announces  the  vanity  of  all  other 
gods,  and  forms  a  protest  against  idols  of  gold 
and  silver  and  w^ood,  as  well  as  against  blind 
fate  and  atheism. 

"Finally,  it  is  subjective,  as  it  declares  the 
uselessness  of  all  sacrifice,  all  temples,  and  all 
w^orship  of  man's  devising,  and  opposes  to 
these  the  w^orship  of  God  in  spirit  and  in  truth, 
assurance  of  faith,  holiness  and  self-control, 
love  and  brotherliness,  and  lastly  the  solid 
certainty  of  the  resurrection  and  of  life  eternal, 
implying  the  futility  of  a  present  life  which 
lies  exposed  to  future  judgment. 


J55 


^"The  Expansion  of  Christianity  in  the  First  Three 
Centuries,"  I.  108- no.  Jiilicher,  "Introduction  to  the 
New  Testament,"  p.  46,  also  attaches  importance  to  this 

8 


114  The  Cliristianity  of  Christ 

Any  one  enjoying  a  tolerable  acquaintance 
with  the  earliest  Christian  Apologists  knows 
how  largely  this  theism  of  Christianity  bulked 
in  the  earliest  sub-apostolic  presentation  and 
defense  of  the  gospel.  For  the  course  pursued 
there  was  ample  apostolic  precedent.  If  some- 
times we  are  disposed  to  wonder  at  the  meager- 
ness  of  the  post-apostolic  Christian  message, 
we  must  remember  the  stupidity  and  darkness 
and  superstition  of  that  heathen  world  into 
which  the  gospel  was  introduced  and  through 
which  it  moved  with  such  enlightening  pow- 
er.®     Though   he   had    forerunners,    not   only 

passage  as  indicating  the  contents  of  Paul's  missionary 
preaching  and  his  manner  of  "speaking  to  an  audience 
of  Gentiles  who  had  never  heard  the  name  of  Christ  be- 
fore, and  to  whom  he  had  first  to  explain  the  funda- 
mental religious  ideas  of  repentance,  of  faith  in  the  one 
true  God,  of  the  Resurrection  and  the  Day  of  Judg- 
ment." 

'"Perhaps  the  most  needful  preparation  for  appre- 
ciating the  beliefs  of  the  early  Church  is  to  get  rid  of 
the    assumption    or    impression   that    the   post-apostolic 


And  His  Apostles  115 

like  St.  Stephen,  but  humble  Christian  men 
and  women  whose  very  names  have  perished 
who  carried  the  gospel  all  the  way  to  Rome, 
and  colleagues,  like  Barnabas  and  Silas  and 
Timothy,  it  is  the  everlasting  greatness  and 
glory  of  the  Apostle  Paul  that  he  systemat- 
ically undertook  and  successfully  accomplished 
the  transplanting  of  Christianity  from  Pales- 
tine to  the  Roman  Empire.  ''Hereby  alone 
Paul  proves  himself  to  be  the  foremost .  inter- 
Church  started  with  the  fuHness  of  the  apostoHc  teaching 
as  that  is  embodied,  for  instance,  in  the  New  Testament. 
That  is  a  natural  assumption,  and  it  is  often  made  without 
a  thought ;  but  it  is  entirely  opposed  to  facts.  What  the 
apostles  and  some  others  of  their  generation  taught  is 
one  thing;  what  the  Church  proved  able  to  receive  is 
quite  another.  The  tradition  of  the  apostolic  ministry- 
was  vivid;  the  writings  embodying  its  message,  which 
v/e  still  possess,  were  circulating,  and  they  were  soon 
collected  and  set  apart  as  a  special  deposit.  But  the 
Church,  which  had  a  glowing  sense  of  the  worth  of 
Christianity,  had  as  yet  laid  but  feeble  and  partial  hold 
on  its  treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge. — Robert 
Rainy,  "The  Ancient  Catholic  Church,"  pp.  66,  67. 


ii6  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

preter  of  Jesus,"  says  Wernle,  though  he  is 
pleased  to  add,  '4n  spite  of  his  deviations  from 
the  message  of  the  Twelve."^  With  true  his- 
toric insight,  he  later  adds,  ''the  communities 
in  which  the  Spirit  finds  a  habitation  are  des- 
tined to  alter  the  current  of  the  world's  his- 
tory."^ 

The  general  contrast  between  the  Gospels 
and  the  Epistles  has  been  often  pointed  out, 
and  is  easily  recognized  by  the  general  reader. 
The  Gospels, — at  least  the  first  three, — are  filled 
with  the  accounts  of  the  deeds  and  teachings 
of  Jesus.  Miracles,  parables,  and  discourses  of 
wider  compass  and  more  general  content,  may 
fairly  be  said  to  constitute  the  substance  of 
the  Synoptists'  narrative.  Little  place  is  given 
to  the  Person  of  Jesus,  to  his  preexistence,  in- 
carnation, and  divinity.  There  is  no  systemat- 
ic exposition  of  the  meaning  of  his  death  or  of 
the  need  or  significance  of  atonement.     If  the 

'"Beginnings  of  Christianity,"  I.  178. 
^Ibid.,  I.  191. 


And  His  Apostles  117 

resurrection  is  an  exception,  it  is  because  it  lies 
so  obviously — so  conspicuously — in  the  region 
of  history  and  fact,  where  its  place  must  first 
be  made  good  before  it  can  be  utilized  in  the 
doctrinal  system  of  the  first  interpreters  of 
Jesus.  In  the  Gospels  the  noble  ethics  of  Je- 
sus are  expounded  and  illustrated,  as  in  the 
Sermon  on  the  Moimt ;  the  disciples  are  taught 
the  spirit,  and  even  a  form,  of  prayer ;  the  law, 
even  if  by  quotation,  is  summarized  in  two 
matchlessly  comprehensive  commandments ;  the 
golden  rule  is  stated;  and  life  in  general  is 
brought  under  the  immediate  inspection  and 
guidance  of  the  Father,  apparently  without 
emphasis  on  the  mediation  of  the  Son.  When 
we  turn  to  the  Epistles,  all  this  is  changed. 
The  paucity  of  the  portrayal  of  the  life  and 
teachings  of  Jesus  in  the  Epistles  of  Paul  has 
often  been  remarked  upon.  His  Christology 
and  his  knowledge  of  the  personal  words  and 
works  of  Jesus  seem  to  be  in  inverse  propor- 
tion.   It  is  true  that  sometimes  the  deepest  and 


ii8  The  Christianity  of  Christ 


most  systematic  and  explicit  Christological 
doctrines  are  introduced  in  a  very  familiar  way 
and  subordinated  to  practical  ends,  as  when 
the  great  Philippian  passage^  opens  with  the 
exhortation,  ''Let  this  mind  be  in  you  which 
was  also  in  Christ  Jesus."  But,  in  general,  it 
may  be  said  that  preexistence,  deity,  incarna- 
tion, sacrificial  death,  justification  or  the  for- 
giveness of  sins,  sanctification,  the  resurrec- 
tion of  Jesus,  his  enthronement  and  return  to 
judgment,  constitute  parts  of  a  closely  articu- 
lated doctrinal  system,  in  which  little  place  is 
found  for  the  precepts  and  parables  of  the 
Gospels.  It  is  usual  to  trace  the  greater  part 
of  this  system,  and  sometimes  the  w^hole  of  it, 
to  the  experience  of  Paul  at  his  conversion  on 
the  way  to  Damascus,  with  all  the  legalistic 
struggles  that  preceded  it  and  the  deliverance 
and  peace  that  followed  it.  About  the  most 
extreme  presentation  of  this  general  position, — 

Thil.  ii.  5-II. 


And  His  Apostles  119 

whose  strength  does  not  need  to  be  exaggera- 
ted,— that  I  have  recently  encountered  is  found 
in  the  words  of  Wernle,  of  wdiose  historic  con- 
jury  it  is  a  stock  trick  to  represent  falsehood 
as  mightier  than  the  truth.  ''Jesus  was  pre- 
sented to  the  Greeks  in  the  shape  of  a  myth- 
ical drama,"  he  says.  "Once  again  they  had 
a  new  myth,  and  that,  too,  derived  from  the 
immediate  present.  And  this  conquered  the 
world."  Indeed!  It  is  surely  open  to  ques- 
tion whether  the  man  who  could  fling  off  such 
a  careless  statement  is  entitled  to  recognition 
either  as  historian  or  as  theologian.  He  adds : 
*'The  simple  teaching  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
had  never  been  able  thus  to  w^in  its  w^ay  to 
victory,  for  the  world  was  not  yet  ripe  to  re- 
ceive the  impression  of  a  great  personality  by 
tself.  That  which  was  great  and  redemptive 
n  Jesus  had  to  suffer  itself  to  be  wrapped  up 
n  the  heavy  coverings  of  dogma;  even  in  St. 
Paul  it  lives  and  works  mightily  therein.  In 
spite  of  all,  it  must  be  deemed  fortunate  that 


I20  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

Jesus    was    preached    to    the    world    by    St. 
Paul."^« 

Such  paradoxes  of  the  failure  and  death  of 
truth  unless  it  assumes  the  guise  and  armor  of 
falsehood,  in  which  alone  it  becomes  conqueror 
and  heir  of  the  world,  can  hardly  masquerade 
in  the  light  of  modern  knowledge  as  final  his- 
torical verdicts.  It  is  really  pitiful  how  often 
Wernle  indulges  in  this  little  piece  of  fanciful 
sophistry,  and  how  uniformly  he  finds  the 
transformation  of  truth  into  falsehood  to  be 
'^fortunate"  for  the  gospel  or  the  indispensable 
condition    of    its    survival. ^^      Satan    himself 

^""Beginnings  of  Christianity,"  I.  254. 

"I  append  a  few  examples.  "Jesus  the  Redeemer,  not 
the  lawgiver,  that  was  his  [St.  Paul's]  watchword.  It 
was  a  great  piece  of  good  fortune  for  Christianity.  As 
a  mere  teacher  of  true  religion  Jesus  would  only  have 
taken  his  place  in  the  ranks  of  the  Greek  moral  phi- 
losophers by  the  side  of  Socrates  or  Pythagoras.  As 
such  he  would  doubtless  have  commanded  respect  and 
admiration,  but  never  the  faith  which  gives  birth  to  a 
religion.    Paul  saved  Christianity  from  the  fate  of  stag- 


And  His  Apostles  121 

must  have  been  the  providence  who  so  uni- 
formly at  the  great  crises  brought  forward 
falsehood  to  serve  the  ends  of  truth. 


naiion  as  a  school  of  ethics  in  the  universal  Greek  ra- 
tionalism." ("Beginnings,"  I.  176,  177.)  It  is  seldom 
that  one  reads  anything  so  shallow  as  this  in  what  pur- 
ports to  be  history.  Here  are  a  few  more  supremely 
fortunate  Pauline  falsehoods.  "The  consequence  of  this 
[Pauline  rabbinical  use  of  the  Old  Testament]  is  that 
the  Old  Testament  and  its  God  are  saved ;  the  God  of 
Jesus  Christ  is  also  the  God  of  Abraham.  In  a  later 
age  the  whole  assault  of  the  gnostics  beat  in  vain  against 
this  rock  of  apologetics.  And  thus  even  this  artificial 
proof  from  Scripture  turned  out  to  be  a  piece  of  good 
fortune  for  the  Church."  (Ibid.,  I.  309)  "In  St.  Paul's 
controversies  with  Jews  and  Judaizers,  the  great  ideas 
of  moral  liberty  and  of  sonship  to  God  are  striving  for 
a  clear  utterance.  They  fail  to  find  an  outer  form  such 
as  to  insure  their  victory;  nevertheless  it  was  fortunate 
for  the  whole  future  history  of  Christianity  that  they 
were  connected  so  closely  with  its  origin."  (Ibid.,  I. 
313.)  "It  is  perfectly  incredible  within  how  short  a 
time  the  Jesus  of  history  had  to  undergo  this  radical 
transformation"  into  the  Christ  of  dogma;  yet  "it  is  for 
this    living    and   loving   Jesus    that    the   apostle's   high 


12'' 


The  Christianity  of  Christ 


But  the  general  truth  of  this  contrast  be- 
tween the  earher  and  the  later  parts  of  the  New 
Testament  must  be  accepted.  We  must  al- 
ways remember,  however,  that  the  Gospels, 
though  holding  the  first  position  in  our  ar- 
rangement of  the  canon,  and  depicting  events 
earlier  than  those  recorded  in  the  Epistles,  are 
really  of  later  composition,  and  issued  from 
the  bosom  of  that  Apostolic  Church  to  which 
Paul  and  Apollos  and  Cephas  had  already  been 
given  and  which  was  in  daily  enjoyment  of 
that  living  experience  which  the  Epistles  de- 
scribe. The  greatest  gift  of  the  Apostolic 
Church  to  the  Christianity  of  all  time  to  the 


Christology  paves  a  way  into  the  world."  {Ibid.,  I. 
339.)  Did  falsehood  ever  play  a  nobler  part  in  the 
history  of  humanity  and  of  religion?  Finally  (I.  340), 
"Christianity  only  became  a  great  spiritual  power  in 
the  world  through  the  theology  of  St.  Paul."  Yet  this 
theology, — in  its  cosmology,  Christology,  and  eschatol- 
ogy, — was  nothing  but  an  effete  Jewish  mythology! 
Surely  paradox  and  absurdity  can  proceed  to  no  greater 
lengths. 


And  His  Apostles  123 

end  of  the  world  is  the  Gospels.  That  there 
is  no  trace  of  later  times  discernible  on  the 
broad  face  of  our  Gospels  no  competent  critic 
will  assert.  That  the  historical  figure  of  Je- 
sus, and  a  true  and  objective  record  of  his 
teachings,  have  been  preserved,  sober  criticism 
may  assert  and  successfully  defend  in  the  face 
of  all  the  world/^  This  is  the  achievement  of 
the  Apostolic  Church.    Pfleiderer,  Wernle,  and 

"So  Jiilicher,  despite  the  freedom,  not  to  say  license, 
of  his  criticism :  "The  Synoptic  Gospels  are  of  price- 
less value,  not  only  as  books  of  religious  edification, 
but  also  as  authorities  for  the  history  of  Jesus.  .  .  . 
The  true  merit  of  the  Synoptists  is  that.  In  spite  of  all 
the  poetic  touches  they  employ,  they  did  not  repaint, 
but  only  handed  on,  the  Christ  of  history." — "Introduc- 
tion to  N.  T.,"  p.  371.  "It  sounds  paradoxical  to  say  so, 
but  the  history  of  the  Synoptic  tradition  stretches  back 
to  the  very  lifetime  of  Jesus.  Within  a  short  time  after 
the  appearance  of  the  Messiah,  certain  particularly 
striking  words  of  his  were  spread  abroad  in  ever-widen- 
ing circles,  while  the  fame  of  his  miracles  penetrated 
through  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  Jewish  lands." — 
Ibid.,  p.  374. 


124  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

their  kind,  may  indulge  their  childish  prattle 
about  "myths"  to  their  hearts'  content;  others 
may  talk  of  the  lack  of  the  scientific  historical 
sense  in  that  age  of  the  world.  The  truth  re- 
mains. Urged  on  by  some  sense  of  solemn  re- 
sponsibility to  distant  lands  and  unborn  gen- 
erations which  perhaps  they  themselves  could 
not  analyze  or  fully  understand;  bent  solely, 
amid  all  their  limitations  and  disabilities  born 
of  the  age  in  which  they  lived,  upon  getting 
the  truth  about  the  words  and  deeds  of  Jesus 
on  record, — that  humble  reformed  publican 
whose  life  had  been  redeemed  by  the  might  of 
Jesus,  remembered  his  old  facility  with  the 
pen  when  he  sat  at  the  receipt  of  custom,  and 
began  his  collection  of  the  discourses — the 
"logia" — of  Jesus  ;^^  that  companion  of  St.  Pe- 

^'"Paplas  tells  us  that  the  Apostle  Matthew  inau- 
gurated this  period  of  writing  down  (of  course  in  the 
popular  dialect  of  Palestine)  a  collection  of  Sayings  of 
the  Lord.  .  .  .  We  do  not  doubt  the  statement  of 
Papias,  and  it  is  to  the  eternal  credit  of  the  primitive 


And  His  Apostles  125 

ter's  who  had  listened  again  and  again  to  the 
substance  of  his  missionary  preaching  be- 
thought himself  to  make  that  primary  state- 
ment of  "the  beginning  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Son  of  God,"  which  survives  to 
this  day  in  St.  Mark  as  the  oldest  of  our  Gos- 
pels; that  companion  of  St.   Paul's,  who  had 

community  that  it  preserved  to  the  Church  the  Jesus 
of  history,  as  well  as  the  Christ  of  the  believer's  re- 
flection. We  know  nothing  definite  as  to  the  motives 
which  induced  this  apostle  to  take  up  his  pen,  but  it  can 
only  have  been  when  the  number  of  ear-witnesses  of  the 
words  of  Jesus  had  considerably  diminished,  and  the 
need  arose  of  handing  on  the  substance  of  his  Gospel, 
under  the  authority  of  an  eye-witness  and  in  permanent 
form  (i.  e.,  in  writing)  to  a  rising  generation  who  had 
neither  heard  nor  seen  the  Lord.  .  .  .  How  opportune 
was  the  undertaking  of  Matthew  was  proved  by  its  suc- 
cess; even  in  the  Greek  communities  it  was  soon  felt 
to  be  indispensable,  and  preachers  interpreted  it  as  well 
as  they  could  until  good  written  translations  did  away 
with  the  necessity  of  such  separate  efforts,  and  at  last 
supplanted  the  Aramaic  original  altogether." — Julicher, 
"Introduction  to  N.  T.,"  pp.  378,  379. 


126  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

the  instincts  if  not  the  habits  of  an  historian, 
used  the  work  of  Mark  and  of  Matthew  and 
of  all  others  of  whose  trustworthiness  and 
value  he  could  satisfy  himself;  and,  lastly,  as 
I  believe  will  be  finally  demonstrated  by  con- 
vincing internal  and  external  testimonies,  the 
aged  Apostle  John  wrote  with  his  own  hand, 
out  of  the  fullness  of  his  personal  knowledge, 
the  unique  and  incomparable  Gospel  which 
bears  his  name.  But,  apart  from  all  the  crit- 
ical inquiries  which  may  be  started,  and  have 
been  started,  in  connection  with  the  Fourth 
Gospel,  the  Synoptical  Gospels  stand  as  the 
monumental  contribution  of  the  general  Apos- 
tolic Church  to  the  historical  foundations  of 
Christianity.  The  Church  of  the  Apostles  gave 
birth  to  these  Gospels,  and  if,  without  the 
guidance  of  the  canons  of  historical  research 
or  the  rules  of  modern  historical  composition, 
that  Church  produced  records  so  manifestly 
objective  and  truth-telling,  the  general  result 
may  be  set  down  to  the  credit  of  an  absolute 


And  His  Apostles  127 

loyalty  to  Jesus,  of  an  unflinching  fidelity  to 
fact,  and  of  the  guidance  and  inspiration  of 
the  Spirit  of  God. 

But,  before  proceeding  to  a  general  expo- 
sition of  the  causes  of  the  acknowledged  con- 
trast between  the  Gospels  and  the  Epistles,  I 
desire  to  put  in  two  pleas  in  abatement  when 
the  narrowness  and  simple  historical  narration 
of  the  Gospels  are  set  over  against  the  uni- 
versalism  and  doctrinal  contents  of  the  Epis- 
tles. One  of  these  pleas  is  based  on  the  con- 
tents of  the  Gospels,  the  other  on  those  of  the 
Epistles.  Both  may  be  exhibited  in  a  brief 
analysis  and  summary. 

I.  The  universal  destination  of  the  gospel 
and  the  divine  self-consciousness  of  Jesus  may 
be  collected  with  certainty,  if  from  relatively 
few,  yet  from  indisputably  genuine,  sayings 
of  record  in  the  first  three  Gospels.  The 
whole  question  at  issue  may  be  said  to  turn 
here.  If  this  point  be  made  out,  then  the 
short  and  easy  method   of  mythologists   like 


128  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

Pfleiderer^*  and  Wernle,  the  latter  of  whom 
does  not  hesitate  to  say  that  the  Gospel  of 
John  is  a  mere  writing  back  into  the  history 
of  the  purely  dogmatic  and  apocalyptic  and 
mythical  Christology  of  Paul,  is  cut  up  by  the 
roots.  It  is  set  aside  as  a  mere  conjecture 
of  unbelieving  criticism,  which  is  not  sup- 
ported by  direct  and  convincing  historical  evi- 
dence, but  simply  commends  itself  to  the  crit- 
ical faculty  as  an  hypothesis  certainly  broad 
enough  to  explain  the  facts,  if  it  he  assumed 
that  Jesus  himself  did  not  evince  his  posses- 
sion of  a  divine  self-consciousness  and  did 
not  preach  a  gospel  of  universal  significance. 
But,  if  an  impartial  examination  of  the 
Synoptical  Gospels,  in  the  light  of  the  se- 
verest critical  judgments,  establishes  the  di- 
vine self-consciousness  of  Jesus  and  the 
universal    destination    of    the    gospel    as    he 


""The  Early  Christian   Conception  of  Christ."     See 
review  of  this  book  in  Appendix. 


And  His  Apostles  129 

preached  it,  the  position  of  Wernle  and  Pfleid- 
erer  and  many  others  not  only  becomes  un- 
tenable but  is  rendered  superfluous  and  im- 
pertinent. In  such  a  life-and-death  struggle, 
involving  a  hand-to-hand  conflict  with  the 
forces  of  unbelief  as  they  have  intrenched 
themselves  in  the  works  of  professedly  Chris- 
tian theologians,  it  may  be  necessary  for  the 
time  to  seem  to  abandon  the  outposts  and  to 
fall  back  upon  the  central  impregnable  citadels 
of  defense.  Thus  we  all  know  that  our  pres- 
ent Gospel  of  Matthew  is  not  identical  with 
the  original  collection  of  Hebrew  or  Aramaic 
discourses  made  by  the  apostle.  The  capable 
investigators  of  the  Synoptical  problem  are 
practically  unanimous  in  the  conclusion  that 
the  narrative  sections  of  our  present  Matthew 
are  mainly  dependent  on  Mark,  wdiile  Luke, 
with  the  exception  of  one  great  section  pe- 
culiar to  himself,  largely  derives  his  parables 
and  speeches  from  the  same  (or  a  similar) 
collection  originally  made  by  ]\Iatthew  and 
9 


130  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

preserved,  for  the  most  part,  in  the  Gospel 
which  goes  by  his  name.  When  we  find,  there- 
fore, that  the  divine  self-consciousness  of  Je- 
sus is  clearly  revealed  in  a  passage  like  Matt, 
xi.  25-30,  Luke  x.  21-24,  which  was  sub- 
jected to  a  critical  examination  and  interpreta- 
tion in  the  light  of  modern  scholarship  in  the 
chapter  on  ''The  Vocation  of  Jesus" — when 
we  find  that  the  divine  self-consciousness  here 
shines  out  with  dazzling  brightness  in  an  ut- 
terance of  our  Lord's  that  can  be  traced  back 
to  that  apostolic  collection  of  discourses,  com- 
mon to  both  Luke  and  our  present  Matthew, 
we  need  not  concern  ourselves  at  present  with 
the  examination  of  the  critical  difficulties 
which  have  been  raised  in  connection  with  the 
baptismal  formula  as  a  post-resurrection  ut- 
terance of  our  Lord's.  Similarly  when  our 
Lord,  In  common  discourse  with  the  people, 
speaks  of  himself  as  "a  greater  than  Jonas" 
and  "a  greater  than  Solomon"^^  we  need  not 
"Matt.  xii.  41,  42. 


And  His  Apostles  131 

go  to  Jewish  theology  and  Messianic  apoca- 
lypses, especially  when  of  uncertain  date,  to 
find  out  what  he  meant ;  for  the  context  of  the 
very  book  in  which  the  reference  to  Jonah  and 
Solomon  occurs  contains  the  explicit  revela- 
tion of  the  divine  consciousness  that  was  in 
the  speaker.  If  w^e  doubt  the  controversies  re- 
corded by  St.  John  which  Jesus  is  represented 
as  having  concerning  his  own  person  with  the 
Jews  in  the  temple  courts  at  Jerusalem,  what 
parable  more  evidently  proceeded  from  our 
Lord's  lips  than  the  parable  of  the  Wicked 
Husbandmen  and  the  Slain  Son  delivered  dur- 
ing passion  week  in  that  selfsame  place  ?  That 
Son  is  expressly  distinguished  from  the  serv- 
ants of  the  householder,  and  of  him,  even  in 
the  hour  of  his  weakness  and  death,  Jesus 
says,  in  indisputably  prophetic  words,  of 
which  all  history  is  the  fulfillment,  "The  stone 
which  the  builders  rejected,  the  same  is  be- 
come the  head  of  the  corner";  immediately 
adding  his  forecast  of  the  conquering  march 


132  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

and  universal  destination  of  the  kingdom, 
"The  kingdom  of  God  shall  be  taken  from 
you,  and  given  to  a  nation  bringing  forth  the 
fruits  thereof/®     And  whosoever  shall  fall  on 

"The  first  demand  upon  criticism  is  that  it  be  crit- 
ical, and  not  mere  subjective  arbitrariness.  It  is  singu- 
lar how  Harnack  and  Wenile  cancel  each  other  in  their 
views  of  this  passage.  Harnack  denies  that  this  conclu- 
sion of  the  parable  of  the  Wicked  Husbandmen  contains 
a  reference  to  the  Gentile  mission.  "The  words  of  Matt, 
xxi.  43,"  he  says,  "do  not  refer  to  the  Gentiles ;  it  is  the 
'nation'  as  opposed  to  the  official  Israel."  ("Expansion 
of  Christianity,"  footnote,  I.  42.)  This  is  but  the  sub- 
terfuge, possibly  unconscious,  of  a  critic  who  has  com- 
mitted himself  to  the  exclusion  of  the  universal  mission 
from  the  Gospels  of  Mark  and  Matthew.  (See  p.  40.) 
Wernle  reaches  this  passage  after  finding  in  Matt.  xvi. 
18  the  first  utterance  of  "Roman  Petrine  tradition  and 
the  consciousness  of  Roman  power."  "For  the  first 
time,  too,  and  surely  not  merely  by  chance,  the  Church 
and  the  kingdom  are  almost  identified  in  this  important 
ecclesiastical  document,"  i.  e.,  St.  Matthew's  Gospel. 
"In  a  passage  peculiar  to  St.  JMatthew,"  he  proceeds, 
"Jesus  says  to  the  Jews,  'The  kingdom  of  God  shall  be 
taken  away  from  you  and  shall  be  given  to  a  nation 
bringing  forth  the  fruit:^  thereof.'    What  is  the  kingdom 


And  His  Apostles  133 

this  stone  shall  be  broken;  but  on  whomsoever 
it  shall  fall  it  will  grind  him  to  powder."^^  If 
difficulties  can  be  started  in  connection  with 
the  great  commission  as  a  woi'd  from  the 
mouth  of  Jesus,  none  can  vitiate  the  teaching 
of  the  indisputably  genuine  parable  of  the 
Good  Samaritan  which  expressly  aims  at  the 
destruction  of  the  spirit  which  confines  re- 
ligion within  national  and  ecclesiastical  bound- 
aries.    And  it  was  a  heathen  soldier  of  the 

of  God  that  the  Jews  have  possessed?  It  is  not,  as  in 
other  passages,  the  future  Messianic  kingdom,  but  the 
theocracy,  the  divine  rule.  The  evangelist  might  just 
as  well  have  said,  'Ye  shall  no  longer  be  the  Church.'  " 
("Beginnings  of  Christianity,"  II.  85.)  Thus  Harnack 
arbitrarily  deprives  the  words  of  their  natural  meaning 
and  force,  while  Wernle  sees  in  them  only  the  embodi- 
ment of  late  ecclesiastical  polemic  between  Christians 
and  Jews.  Both  positions  are  unworthy  the  name  of 
criticism,  and  are  absolutely  worthless  for  the  removal 
of  the  Gentile  mission  from  the  teachings  of  Jesus.  They 
afford  an  excellent  illustration  of  the  truth  that  the 
overthrow  of  criticism  is  found  in  better  criticism. 
"Matt.  xxi.  33-44. 


134  ^^^<?  Christianity  of  Christ 

Empire,  the  Capernaum  centurion,  at  the 
beauty  and  solidity  of  whose  character,  in  its 
humanity,  liberality,  humility,  and  faith,  Je- 
sus marveled;  and,  in  the  light  of  whose  con- 
duct and  example  he  was  moved  to  say,  ''I 
say  unto  you,  I  have  not  found  so  great  faith^ 
no,  not  in  Israel.  And  I  say  unto  you,  that 
many  shall  come  from  the  east  and  the  west, 
and  shall  sit  down  with  Abraham  and  Isaac 
and  Jacob  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven;  but  the 
sons  of  the  kingdom  shall  be  cast  forth  into 
outer  darkness."^^  Jesus  told  his  earliest  dis- 
ciples that  they  were  the  salt  of  the  earth  and 
the  light  of  the  world  ;^^  and  yet  there  are  those 
who  deny  the  primitive  missionary  character 
and  charter  of  his  Church  and  the  universal 
destination  of  the  gospel  as  he  preached  it. 

2.  The  Epistles,  if  predominantly  doctrinal, 
are  by  no  means  destitute  of  historical  remi- 
niscences of  the  teachings  and  works  of  Jesus. 

"Matt.  viii.  10-12.    '^Matt.  v.  13,  14. 


And  His  Apostles  135 

We  have  just  seen  how  the  first  page  of  the 
New  Testament,  as  we  have  it  in  the  first  chap- 
ter of  First  Thessalonians,  presupposes  the 
general  currency  and  acceptance  of  Jesus' 
teaching  concerning  the  Fatherhood  of  God. 
Despite  many  blemishes  and  shortcomings, 
some  of  w^hich  wxre  of  a  serious  nature,  the 
early  testimony  is  unanimous  that  a  life  of  ex- 
traordinary purity  and  elevation  was  lived  in 
the  new  communities.  The  Pauline  Epistles 
everywhere  bear  witness  to  the  deep  reality  of 
religious  experience,  and  the  precepts  of  Jesus 
are  reflected  in  the  life  of  love  enjoined  by  the 
apostle.  Moreover,  as  has  often  been  indi- 
cated, the  great  outlines  of  the  life  of  Jesus, — 
his  birth  of  the  lineage  of  David,  his  call  of 
chosen  men  to  the  apostolate,  his  institution  of 
the  Supper,  his  betrayal  and  shameful  death, 
and  his  resurrection, — may  be  easily  gathered 
out  of  the  Epistles.  That  more  of  the  life  and 
teachings  were  not  directly  conveyed  to  the 
Gentile   Churches   m,ay   be   regretted;   but   we 


13^  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

nuist  also  consider  what  was  possible  in  the 
great  transplantation  of  Christianity  in  which 
St.  Paul  was  the  principal  agent,  and  the  need 
of  simplification  in  preaching  ''Jesus  and  the 
resurrection,"^^  or  "Christ  and  him  cruci- 
fied,""^ if  these  were  really  the  saving  facts 
and  truths  of  the  gospel. 

With  this  statement  of  two  pleas  in  abate- 
ment as  gathered  out  of  the  contents  of  the 
Gospels  and  the  Epistles,  respectively,  I  may 
now  proceed  to  an  examination  of  the  grounds 
of  the  admitted  general  contrast  between  the 
Christianity  of  the  Gospels  and  the  Christianity 
of  the  Epistles. 

We  must  endeavor  to  transport  ourselves  out 
of  the  records  of  history,  as  contained  in  our 
documents,  into  the  region  of  history  itself, — 
an  actual  succession  of  objective  events  in  the 
real  life  of  the  world.  Unless  they  possessed 
an  unusual  importance  in  the  view  of  the 
writers,    quite    disproportionate    space    is    de- 

^"Acts  xvii.   i8.     ''i  Cor.  ii.  2. 


And  His  Apostles  i37 

voted  in  each  of  the  Gospels  to  the  last  week 
of  our  Lord's  life,  from  the  triumphal  entry 
into  Jerusalem  on  Palm  Sunday  to  the  resur- 
rection. It  is,  indeed,  difficult  for  us  to  realize 
the  unparalleled  impression  made  upon  the 
apostles,  and  the  revolution  and  creation  of 
conviction,  brought  about  by  these  final  events. 
What  had  occurred  ?  ( i )  There  had  been  the 
solemn  institution  of  the  memorial  feast  of  the 
Lord's  Supper,  with  which,  our  accounts  au- 
thorize us  to  believe,  there  had  been  connected 
moving  instruction  on  the  significance  of  Je- 
sus' death  on  the  morrow.  (2)  The  betrayal, 
arrest,  and  trials  before  the  ecclesiastical  and 
civil  authorities  followed.  (3)  The  crucifixion 
on  Friday  was  an  awful  termination  of  the 
holy  life  of  the  great  and  innocent  Master  who 
had  gone  about  doing  good.  (4)  The  resur- 
rection, with  the  appearances  on  that  first 
Easter  Sunday,  furnished  the  tremendous  cli- 
max of  this  tremendous  week.  To  these  events 
must  be  added  (5)  the  intercourse  of  the  forty 


133  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

days;  (6)  the  ascension;  (7)  Pentecost,  the 
gift  of  the  Spirit,  and  the  birthday  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church. 

Let  us  confine  our  attention  to  these  seven 
events,  each  of  them,  we  may  well  believe,  of 
inexhaustible  significance,  through  which  the 
apostles  must  look  back  to  the  deeds  and 
teachings  of  our  Lord's  ministry. 

First  of  all,  the  events  themselves  must  have 
fastened  and  fascinated  the  minds  of  the  dis- 
ciples. One  needs  only  to  allow  the  full  im- 
pression of  the  freshness  and  vigor  of  the  open- 
ing chapters  of  Acts  to  sink  into  his  intelli- 
gence to  recognize  the  inimitable  reality  of  a 
living  picture.  The  real  character  of  Jesus, 
as  Lord  and  Christ,  repentance,  remission  of 
sins,  and  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost  were  the 
themes  of  St.  Peter's  preaching  even  before 
the  conversion  of  St.  Paul. 

Secondly,  these  events  at  the  last  recalled 
and  reinterpreted  all  that  Jesus  had  done  and 
taught,  especially  his  anticipations  and  instruc- 


And  His  Apostles  139 

tions  concerning  these  very  occurrences.  From 
the  time  of  Peter's  confession  in  Cesarea  Phi- 
lippi  "began  Jesus  to  show  unto  his  disciples, 
how  that  he  must  go  unto  Jerusalem,  and  suf- 
fer many  things  of  the  elders  and  chief  priests 
and  scribes,  and  be  killed,  and  be  raised  again 
the  third  day."-^  That  Jesus  himself  had  not 
been  indifferent  to  the  question  of  his  Person 
is  shown  by  the  question  he  himself  propounded 
in  Cesarea  Philippi,  ''Who  do  men  say  that  I, 
the  Son  of  man,  am?"^^  Six  days  after  this 
appeal  of  the  Master,  the  confession  of  the 
rock  apostle,  and  the  conversation  concerning 
the  decease  which  he  should  accomplish  at 
Jerusalem,  and  the  resurrection  which  should 
follow,  occurred  the  transfiguration  of  Jesus 
in  the  high  mountain  apart.  According  to  all 
the  Synoptical  Gospels,  these  events  marked 
the  crisis  of  our  Lord's  public  ministiy,  and 
the  whole  series  centers  directly  in  himself. 

''Matt.  xvi.  21.     ''Matt.  xvi.  13. 


140  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

When  the  fulfillment  of  the  Saviour's  predic- 
tions came  with  such  overwhelming  might,  his 
own  teachings  about  himself,  and  revelations 
of  himself,  were,  doubtless,  for  the  first  time 
grasped  in  their  real  and  full  significance. 

But,  it  may  be  said,  if  the  transition  from 
the  Christianity  of  the  Gospels  to  the  Chris- 
tianity of  the  Epistles  is  to  be  explained  by 
the  interposition  of  this  series  of  (say)  seven 
events  of  a  character  so  extraordinary  and  mi- 
raculous that  they  forever  made  Jesus  himself 
the  foundation  of  his  religion, — nay,  the  very 
religion  itself, — let  us  not  forget  that  the  trans- 
actions themselves  belong  to  a  category  of 
which  scientific  history  can  take  no  account. 
It  might  be  answered  in  a  word.  All  the  worse 
for  scientific  history,  w^hich  thus  begs  the  ques- 
tion and  declines  to  attempt  the  solution  of  the 
most  urgent  problem  in  the  world's  life!  But 
let  that  pass.  The  queer  thing  is  that  the 
scientific  historians,  like  Keim,  Wernle,  and 
company,  have  so  little  confidence  in  their  own 


And  His  Apostles  141 

historical  canons,  and  are  so  overwhelmed  by 
the  evidence  contained  in  the  simple,  objective 
records  which  have  come  down  to  our  times, 
that  they  are  never  content  simply  to  cut  out 
this  section  of  our  Lord's  career  and  cast  it 
aside  as  nothing  worth.  They  always  manage 
to  bring  it  back  into  the  circuit  of  history  as 
the  deterinining  factor  in  the  zvhole  subsequent 
development.  And  thereby  they  do  exactly 
w4iat  St.  Peter  did  in  his  earliest  preaching  and 
what  St.  Paul  does  in  all  his  Epistles.  Let  us 
consider  the  resurrection  alone.  If  this  be 
allowed,  all  the  rest  follows  with  it.  Take 
Wernle's  treatment  as  typical : 

''Contrary  to  all  expectations,  the  dispersed 
disciples  began  to  gather  together  again,  at 
first  in  Galilee  and  then  in  Jerusalem.  'He  is 
not  dead,'  they  cried  in  triumphant  enthusiasm 
to  the  murderers  of  Jesus ;  'he  liveth.'  The 
reckoning  of  the  Sanhedrists  turned  out  to  be 
at  fault.  Their  clever  calculations  proved  to 
be  the  greatest  folly  and  impolicy,  for  faith  in 


142  The  Cliristiojiity  of  Christ 

the  crucified  and  risen  Lord  brought  about  that 
which  faith  in  the  Hving  Christ  had  not  ac- 
compHshed :  the  foundation  of  the  new  Church, 
the  separation  from  Judaism,  the  conquest  of 
the  world. 

"Whence  this  sudden  change?  For  that  the 
disciples  fled  in  confusion  and  consternation  is 
a  certain  fact.  Their  answer  was :  the  Lord 
has  appeared  to  us,  first  to  Peter,  then  to  the 
twelve,  then  to  more  than  five  hundred  breth- 
ren together,  then  to  James,  then  to  all  of  the 
apostles,  last  of  all  to  Paul.  From  these  ap- 
pearances,— the  first  must  have  taken  place,  ac- 
cording to  the  oldest  accounts,  in  Galilee, — they 
inferred  the  facts  of  the  resurrection  and  of  the 
present  life  of  Jesus  in  glory.  In  the  very 
earliest  time,  when  St.  Paul  obtained  this  in- 
formation from  St.  Peter,  they  were  content 
with  drawing  these  conclusions  and  required 
no  further  proofs.  The  new  faith  rests  upon 
the  appearances  alone. 

''Our  judgment  as  to  these  appearances  de- 


And  His  Apostles  143 

pends  upon  the  credibility  which  we  attach  to 
St.  Paul  and  his  informant,  and  still  more 
upon  our  philosophical  and  religious  stand- 
point, upon  our  'faith.'  Purely  scientific  con- 
siderations cannot  decide  where  the  question 
at  stake  is  the  existence  or  nonexistence  of 
the  invisible  world,  and  the  possibility  of  com- 
municating with  spirits.  Hence,  too,  all  at- 
tempts at  explanation,  which  rest  upon  the 
axiom  that  our  world  oi  phenomena  is  the 
only  reality,  are  merely  subjectively  persuasive 
and  convincing.  The  Christian  faith  always 
reckons  with  the  reality  of  the  other  world 
which  is  our  goal.  A  Christian,  therefore,  has 
no  difficulty  in  accepting  as  the  ground  of  his 
belief  in  the  resurrection,  the  real  projection  of 
Jesus  into  this  world  of  sense  by  means  of  a 
Vision.  ^ 

A  variety  of  reflections  almost  spontaneous- 
ly arises  in  the  mind  of  a  fairly  thoughtful 

^^"Beginnings  of  Christianity,"  I.  114,  115. 


144  The  Cliristianity  of  Christ 

reader  of  this  passage.  In  the  first  place,  we 
catch  our  young  friend, — * 'professor  extraordi- 
narius"  in  a  German  university, — despite  his 
wondrous  sleight  of  hand,  in  the  very  act  of 
playing  his  old  trick.  Faith  in  the  crucified 
and  risen  Lord, — that  is,  the  Christianity  of 
the  Epistles,  which  is  false, — accomplishes  the 
founding  of  the  Church  and  the  conquest  of 
the  world!  a  task  utterly  impossible  to  faith 
in  the  living  Christ, — that  is,  the  Christianity 
of  the  Gospels,  which  is  true !  Really  we  must 
be  excused  from  seriously  considering  a  posi- 
tion which  takes  refuge  in  such  legerdemain 
as  this.  In  the  next  place,  if  St.  Paul  is  a 
competent  and  veracious  w^itness, — and  what 
character  in  history  is  furnished  with  better 
credentials  (2  Cor.  xi.  22-28)  ? — neither  sci- 
ence nor  philosophy,  unless  it  be  materialism, 
hinders  the  Christian  from  believing  the  resur- 
rection to  have  been  "the  real  projection  of 
Jesus  into  this  world  of  sense."  In  other 
words,  (i)  if  the  fact  of  the  resurrection  rests 


And  His  Apostles  145 

upon  the  credibility  of  testimony,  (2)  if  it 
is  a  question  which  purely  scientific  considera- 
tions are  incompetent  to  decide,  (3)  if  ideal- 
'  istic  philosophy  can  afford  to  laugh  to  scorn 
the  mere  suggestion  that  ''our  world  of  phe- 
nomena is  the  only  reality,"  or  that  it  is  onto- 
logically  real  at  all, — all  of  which  are  positions 
accepted  by  Herr  Wernle, — then  the  sane  and 
serious  theologian  need  not  be  troubled  in  the 
smallest  degree  about  how  this  brilliant  young- 
professor  explains  the  fact,  or  about  the  further 
reasons  which  he  proceeds  to  assign  for  not 
believing  it.  Our  final  reflection  must  resolve 
itself  into  an  expression  of  mere  wonder  that 
a  man  who  possesses  the  great  learning  and 
ability  which  Professor  Wernle  evinces  in 
many  parts  of  his  work  could  dismiss  so  grave 
a  subject  with  a  mere  airy  wave  of  the  hand. 
But  it  is  enough  that  Wernle,  though  he  in- 
sists upon  his  paradox  and  absurdity  of  its 
falsehood,  allows  that  the  resurrection  was  the 
foundation  of  the  Church  and  of  the  conquest 
10 


1^6  TIic  Christianity  of  Christ 

of  the  world!  Thus  the  resurrection  was  at 
once  nothing  and  ez'ery tiling,  and  our  scien- 
tific historian  has  without  difficuUy  solved  his 
problem. 

The  conclusion  which  a  really  historical  con- 
sideration of  the  development  of  the  Church 
forces  upon  the  candid  and  careful  inquirer  is 
that  the  full  and  complete  reconciliation  of 
the  Christianity  of  the  Gospels, — the  Chris- 
tianity of  Christ,  as  it  is  sometimes  called, — 
with  the  Christianity  of  the  Epistles,  or  of  the 
Apostles,  is  found  in  the  overwhelmingly  great 
series  of  actual  occurrences  which  intervened 
between  the  close  of  the  public  ministry  of  our 
Lord  and  the  day  of  Pentecost.  It  is  with 
great  difficulty  that  we  can  live  again  the  life 
of  that  generation.  Since  Christianity  is  trans- 
mitted to  us  by  an  infinitely  precious  collection 
of  sacred  writings,  it  is  very  difficult  for  us  to 
realize,  with  the  first  generation  of  Christians, 
who  had  no  New  Testament,  that  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Church  and  of  its  conquest  of  the 


And  His  Apostles  147 

world, — in  a  word,  of  Christendoiii, — is  not  a 
book  but  a  Person — a  divine  Person  who  lived 
a  life,  and  died  a  death,  "for  our  sins,"^^  and 
rO'Se  again  from  the  dead,  and  being  by  the 
right  hand  of  God  exalted  received  of  the  Fa- 
ther the  promise  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  poured 
forth  the  Christian  Church  of  the  centuries. 
"Other  foundation  can  no  man  lay  than  that  is 
laid,  which  is  Jesus  Christ."'^  Only  when  we 
pass  from  history  as  record  to  history  as  fact 
do  we  dig  tO'  the  deepest  foundation  of  the 
Church  in  the  sacrificial  death  and  the  glori- 
ous resurrection  of  the  incarnate  Son  of  God. 
There  is  no  breach  between  this  conception  of 
the  salvation  wrought  out  by  Jesus  and  the 
ethics  and  history  of  the  spiritual  life  w^hich 
fall  from  his  lips  in  the  Gospels.  They  were 
consistently  united  in  the  faith  and  life  of  the 
Apostolic  Church,  and  the  same  living  syn- 
thesis exists  in  the  experience  and  conduct  of 

^■^i  Cor.  XV.  3.     '^"i  Cor.  iii.  11. 


148  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

thousands  of  saints  to-day.  The  separate  rec- 
ords which  we  have  in  Gospels  and  Epistles 
have  merely  divided  in  the  New  Testament 
what  from  the  beginning,  i.  e.,  from  Pentecost, 
existed  as  one  whole  in  the  life  of  the  Church 
and  in  the  experience  of  the  individual  Chris- 
tian. While  some  of  the  view  points  and 
experiences  of  Apostolic  Christianity  are  un- 
doubtedly written  back  even  into  a  few  say- 
ings of  Jesus  as  recorded  in  our  Gospels,^^  the 
outstanding  and  overshadowing  fact  is  that  so 
truly  and  objectively  did  the  Apostolic  Church 
perform  its  task  of  drawing  the  picture  of  Je- 

"So  Shailer  Mathews,  "The  Messianic  Hope  in  the 
New  Testament,"  p.  225 :  "The  original  materials  of  the 
Gospels,  as  we  have  already  seen,  may  be  accepted  as 
the  work  of  the  disciples  of  Jesus  himself,  but  the 
Synoptic  Gospels,  as  completed  literary  units,  represent 
to  a  considerable  degree  the  point  of  view  of  the  Church 
during  the  last  quarter  of  the  first  century."  This  truth 
is  sufficiently  recognized  in  the  text  above,  but,  in  order 
to  a  true  historical  perspective,  needs  to  be  supplemented 
by  the  statement  "the  outstanding  and  overshadowing 
fact  is  that  so  truly  and  objectively  did  the  Apostolic 
Church  perform  its  task,"  etc. 


And  His  Apostles  149 

sus  as  he  lived  and  taught  that  the  contrast  is 
faithfully  preserved  between  the  days  of  the 
Son  of  man  and  those  of  his  followers  who 
planted  the  Church  after  his  departure  from 
the  world.  The  problem  of  the  literature, — 
the  contrast  of  Gospels  and  Epistles, — is  cre- 
ated by  the  fidelity  of  those  who  produced  it. 

The  title  of  this  chapter  was  suggested  by 
the  language  (quoted  in  a  footnote  on  an 
earlier  page)  of  Dr.  Heinrich  August  Wil- 
helm  Meyer,  than  whom  Germany  has  pro- 
duced no  greater  exegete.  It  is  but  just  to 
cite  it  here  (in  part)  again:  ''Hence  the 
xeliievog  OefieXiog  is  that  laid  by  God,  namely, 
Jesus  Christ  himself,  the  fund  amentum  essen- 
tiale,  he  whom  God  sent,  delivered  up  to  death, 
raised  again,  and  exalted,  thereby  making  him 
to  be  for  us  wisdom  and  righteousness  and 
sanctification  and  redemption.  .  .  .  This  is 
the  objective  foundation  which  lies  there  for 
the  whole  of  Christendom."^^ 

^"Commentary,"  i  Cor.  iii.   11. 


IV 

BIBLICAL   CRITICISM   AND   THE 
CHRISTIAN  FAITH 

(^50 


BIBLIC\L   CRITICISM  AXD   THE 
CHRISTIAN  FAITH.i 

I.  Christiaxity  as  ax  Historical  Religiox 

Amexabie  to  the  Caxoxs  of  His- 
torical SCIEXCE. 

What  are  the  foundations  of  the  Christian 
faith  in  its  Protestant  form?  The  Reformer:, 
accepting  the  character  accorded  the  Bible  in 
both  the  Je\\'ish  and  the  Romish  Churches,  sub- 
stituted for  the  infallible  Church,  with  its  org^r- 
of  Council  or  Pope,  the  infallible  Bible,  ir.er- 
rant  in  letter,  and  interpreted,  nominally  by  the 
indi\'idual,  but  practically  by  the  several  sym- 
bols framed  by  the  RefonnaticMi  parties  and 
peoples.  This  action  was  both  polemically  ar.d 
historically  justifiable,  if  not  ine\-itable;  since 

Conierer   r    L      :         ^  ::. 


i5|  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

sumably  authentic  records,  against  the  recog- 
nized corruptions  of  a  degenerate  present. 

I.  But  is  the  truth  of  Christianity  dependent 
upon  the  preservation  of  an  inerrant  record? 
To  state  the  question  in  this  form  is  to  answer 
it  with  a  negative.  For  Christianity  is  an  his- 
torical rehgion  which  arose  in  a  definite  time 
and  place;  which  was  promoted  by  personal 
agents,  who  can  be  recognized  and  described; 
and  which  left  behind  it  concrete  and  world- 
wide results,  distinct  and  determinate  in  our 
day,  and  capable  of  being  traced  to  their  or- 
igin. If  inerrant  records  are  the  necessary  base 
of  the  science  of  history,  then  is  scientific  his- 
tory, in  any  form  or  sphere,  civil  or  ecclesias- 
tical, impossible.  On  the  contrary,  all  history 
worthy  of  the  name  begins  with  documentary 
criticism  and  the  assortment  and  valuation  of 
the  available  data.  Christianity  can  be  no  ex- 
ception to  this  uniform  procedure  of  history. 
Nor  need  it  be. 

Moreover,  the  distinction  must  be  definitely 


And  His  Apostles  155 

made  between  history  external  and  objective,  a 
series  of  events  in  the  actual  order  of  the  life 
of  the  world,  and  history  as  mere  narrative  or 
record.  The  criticism  of  history  as  record  is 
expressly  that  we  may  arrive  at  history  as  fact. 
The  fact  is  antecedent,  the  record  consequent; 
the  fact  is  independent  and  exists,  so  to  speak, 
in  its  own  right  and  by  its  own  force;  while 
the  record  is  dependent  and  relative,  produced 
by  force  of  the  fact.  In  the  sphere  of  historical 
Christianity  the  recognition  of  this  self-evident 
principle  is  not,  on  the  one  hand,  to  fall  into  the 
Romish  error  of  exalting  trajdition  tO'  an  equal 
authority  with  Hoily  Scripture ;  nor,  on  the  oth- 
er, is  it  to  accept  the  Anglican  High-church  her- 
esy of  the  supremacy  of  the  Church  because  the 
Apostolic  Church  produced  the  New  Testament, 
(i)  In  the  presence  of  the  High  Anglican 
it  may  be  freely  granted  that  the  Christian 
Church  is  older  than  the  New  Testament,  and 
has  existed  as  a  concrete,  living  reality  in  the 
w^orld  from  the  beginning  till  now ;  but  to  these 


156  The  Christianity  of  Christ 


obvious  facts  must  be  added  the  further  fact 
that,  if  the  first  generation  of  Christians  pro- 
duced the  New  Testament,  as  a  record  of  the 
source  and  spring  and  dominating  type  of 
Christian  hfe,so  the  New  Testament,  not  by  vir- 
tue of  any  ecclesiastical  definition  of  the  canon, 
and  not  by  any  dogmatic  assignment  of  exclu- 
sive authority  or  inerrancy,  but  because  against 
all  claimants  it  asserts  historically  its  own  truth 
as  a  contemporaneous  record  and  as  the  living 
Word  of  God,  has  begotten  and  nourished  ev- 
ery generation  of  Christians  since  the  first. 

(2)  In  the  presence  of  the  Romanist,  with- 
out any  theoretical  denial  of  his  principle  of 
tradition,  we  may  show  that  in  view  of  the 
achievements  of  modern  historical  science,  the 
only  defensible  sense  of  this  term  tradition  is 
history;  and  that,  without  any  dogmatic  de- 
termination of  its  exclusive  authority,  or  its 
canonical  limits,  or  its  inerrancy  as  a  record, 
the  New  Testament,  under  the  sifting  processes 
of  criticism,  efifectively  transmits  to  the  present 


And  His  Apostles  157 

generation  a  genuine  historical  deposit  and 
achieves  for  itself  the  character  of  an  authori- 
tative and  exclusive  source.  These  same  prin- 
ciples, mutatis  mutandis,  apply  to  the  Old  Tes- 
tament. 

Hear  the  conclusion  of  the  matter  considered 
from  the  historical  point  of  view :  Christianity 
is  an  historically  founded  religion,  living  its 
historically  traceable  life  in  the  world  since  the 
day  of  its  birth,  and  exhibiting  itself  as  the 
most  real  and  stupendous  fact  of  the  present. 
Therefore,  historical  science  alone  can  prima- 
rily transcend  the  dogmatic  differences  of  Ro- 
manist, Anglican,  and  Protestant  concerning 
the  rule  of  faith  and  kindred  questions,  and 
lay  solidly  and  permanently,  not  indeed  in  the 
realm  of  fact,  but  in  the  realm  of  conviction 
and  personal  belief,  the  massive  foundations  of 
the  Christian  faith. 

2.  So  far  as  the  Old  Testament,  in  our  day 
the  especial  subject  of  literary  and  historical 
criticism,  is  concerned,  we  may  accept  the  ver- 


i5'5  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

diet  of  the  Rev.  S.  R.  Driver,  who  has  given 
us  the  most  careful  and  scholarly,  at  once  the 
most  candid  and  the  most  modest,  treatise  in 
English  on  Old  Testament  Introduction.  "It 
is  not  the  case  that  critical  conclusions,  such  as 
those  expressed  in  the  present  volume,"  says 
Dr.  Driver,  in  his  rewritten  sixth  edition,  "are 
in  conflict  either  w^ith  the  Christian  creeds  or 
with  the  articles  of  the  Christian  faith.  These 
conclusions  affect  not  the  fact  of  revelation, 
but  only  its  form.  They  help  to  determine  the 
stages  through  which  it  passed,  the  different 
phases  which  it  assumed,  and  the  process  by 
which  the  record  of  it  was  built  up.  They  do 
not  touch  either  the  authority  or  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament." 

The  publication  in  the  last  few  years  of  such 
books  as  McCurdy's  "History,  Prophecy,  and 
the  Monuments" ;  Rogers's  "History  of  Baby- 
lonia and  Assyria" ;  and  Sayce's  "Higher  Crit- 
icism and  the  Monuments"  and  "Early  Israel 
and   the   Surrounding   Nations,"    with   others 


And  His  Apostles  159 

that  might  be  mentioned,  has  famiharized  the 
popular  mind  with  the  fact  that  there  has  been 
preserved  a  veritable  historical  record  parallel, 
generally  speaking,  with  that  contained  in  the 
Old  Testament,  and  serving  valuable  ends  of 
elucidation  and  verification.  Sayce  and  Hom- 
mel  may  have  considerably  exaggerated  the 
value  of  these  independent  historical  materials 
for  the  refutation  of  the  literary  and  documen- 
tary analyses  of  higher  criticism.  But  histori- 
ans will  find  higher  and  more  constructive  uses 
for  these  records  unearthed  by  the  pick  and  the 
spade  than  those  of  mere  polemics. 

The  data  are  in  hand,  and  are  daily  increas- 
ing, for  a  positive  historical  reconstruction  of 
that  great  ancient  world  of  western  Asia  of 
which  the  life  of  Israel  was  a  part.  However 
the  relative  political  or  commercial  importance 
of  Israel  may  have  suffered  by  the  uncovering 
of  this  wider  world,  in  which  the  Hebrews  but 
seldom  played  a  leading  part,  there  is  incalcula- 
ble gain  in  the  securing  of  a  correct  historical 


i6o  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

perspective  and  in  the  illumination  and  com- 
pletion of  what  remains  obscure  or  fractional 
in  the  Old  Testament.  What  once  stood  alone 
in  that  ancient  record,  moreover,  is  now 
vouched  for  by  many  witnesses,  telling  of  the 
same  events  from  the  standpoint  of  the  party 
of  the  other  part,  and  corroborating,  with  in- 
dependent freedom,  what  prophets  and  his- 
torians had  set  down  in  the  sacred  books  of 
the  Jews.  Such  are  the  priceless  gifts  which 
the  science  of  history  is  now  bestowing  upon 
the  interpretation  of  the  Old  Testament  and 
upon  the  origins  and  early  developments  of 
revealed  religion. 

II.  The  Historical  Person  and  Teaching 
OF  THE  Divine  Christ. 

In  the  second  place,  the  science  of  history  as 
concerned  with  the  New  Testament  has  surely, 
if  at  times  slowly  and  painfully,  led  us  back  to 
the  historical  Jesus,  who  is  himself  the  Alpha 
and  Omega  of  the  Christian  religion.     A  great 


And  His  Apostles  i6i 

body  of  Christ's  own  teaching  is  secure.  This 
teaching  is  not  only,  for  the  most  part,  ration- 
ally and  ethically  self-evidencing,  apart  from 
the  record  that  contains  it,  but  it'  is  also  his- 
torically traceable  to  the  lips  of  Jesus,  and  be- 
comes, historically  and  ethically,  the  norm  and 
standard  of  all  revelation  contained  in  Holy. 
Scripture.  The  notion  of  the  equal  value  of 
every  part  of  Scripture  for  ethics  and  religion 
is  no  longer  a  formula  to  which  the  Christian 
is  required  to  give  his  assent.  "Holy  Scrip- 
ture containeth  all  things  necessary  to  sal- 
vation," is  the  measured  language  of  oiir  Ar- 
ticle of  Religion.  The  ethics  of  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  cut  from  the  neck  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church  the  millstone  of  the  ethics  of  the 
Conquest  of  Canaan.  The  parable  of  the  Lost 
Son  is  the  uncovering  of  the  heart  of  God  by 
the  hand  of  his  Son,  and  the  imperishable 
apologetic  of  the  Christian  faith  framed  by  its 
Founder  and  Head.  The  Beatitudes  are  an 
immeasurable  advance  on  the  Tables  of  the 
II 


1 62  The  Christianity  of  Christ 


Law,  and  should  preferably  be  engraven  on 
the  heart  of  every  Christian  child.  Moreover, 
while  Jesus  pronounced  upon  no  modern  crit- 
ical question  of  date  or  authorship,  the  free- 
dom of  his  attitude  toward  Moses,  every- 
where evinced  in  his  discourses,  may  be  taken 
as  the  warrant  of  the  privilege  and  the  duty  of 
historical  criticism.  When  Jesus  said  that 
Moses  for  the  hardness  of  their  hearts  suf- 
fered the  Israelites  to  put  away  their  wives, 
he  proved  himself  a  critic  of  the  keenest  in- 
sight, for  he  at  once  explained  the  temporary 
exception  and  condemned  it  as  a  rule  of  life 
by  the  weight  of  eternal  truth.  At  the  same 
time  we  must  remember  that  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, with  which  we  deal,  is  the  Bible  of  Je- 
sus' personal  edification  and  of  his  public  min- 
istry, and  that,  while  he  has  set  us  the  exam- 
ple of  a  great  "discrimination,"  to  use  the 
aptly  chosen  word  of  Professor  George  Adam 
Smith,  "what  was  indispensable  to  the  Re- 
deemer," if  I  may  again  adopt  the  language 


And  His  Apostles  163 

of  this  scholar,  ''must  always  be  indispensable 
to  the  redeemed." 

Let  us  remind  ourselves,  also,  that  the  body 
of  teaching  traceable  to  the  lips  of  Jesus  is 
not  confined  to  the  Synoptical  Gospels.  More 
and  more  the  phenomena  of  the  Fourth  Gos- 
pel attest  its  composition  by  an  eyewitness  of 
the  ministry  of  Jesus,  and  fix  its  date  well 
within  the  limits  of  the  first  Christian  century. 
I  am  not  unaware  of  the  radical  attitude  to- 
ward the  evangelical  tradition  assumed  by 
one  of  our  two  new  Bible  dictionaries.  In- 
deed, I  exercised  the  privilege  of  transferring 
to  the  pages  of  the  journal  which  I  have  the 
honor  to  edit  the  masterly  expose  of  the  rad- 
ical positions  of  the  Encyclopcudia  Bihlica, 
which  proceeded  from  the  able  pen  of  the 
present  honored  President  of  the  British  Con- 
ference, and  recent  Fraternal  Delegate  to  the 
General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South.  But,  despite  such  radical  de- 
fections, and  the  grievous  hurt  to  the  common 


164  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

Christian  cause  resulting  from  such  pubhca- 
tions,  the  Gospel  of  John, — for  the  Gospel  of 
the  Apostle  it  is, — steadily  wins  its  way  to  a 
wider  and  more  assured  critical  acceptance. 

It  unites  two  apparently  irreconcilable  char- 
acters :  ( I )  a  marvelous  minuteness  of  narra- 
tive detail  and  vividness  of  picturesque  repro- 
duction far  surpassing  anything  found  in  the 
Synoptical  Gospels;  and  (2)  an  absoluteness 
of  universal  and  final  statement  of  the  pro- 
foundest  truths  of  the  Gospel  which  befits  it 
as  the  conclusion  and  crown  of  the  literature 
of  the  New  Testament.  Both  these  character- 
istics equally  bespeak  first-hand  knowledge; 
while  its  independent  scheme  of  chronology, 
and  the  general  freedom  and  firmness  of  the 
author's  deviations  from  the  Synoptical  tra- 
dition, both  by  omission  and  addition,  attest 
the  accuracy  and  certainty  of  his  knowledge, 
and  his  unchallenged  apostolic  position  and 
authority  in  the  closing  decades  of  the  first 
century.      The    Eternal    Divine   Word    Incar- 


A?id  His  Apostles  165 


nate,  whose  nature  and  relations  with  the  Fa- 
ther and  the  world  are  revealed  in  the  Fourth 
Gospel  with  a  precision  and  completeness 
which  dogmatic  theology  may  imitate,  but 
cannot  surpass,  and  yet  in  unfailing  harmony 
with  the  lowlier  and  more  human  representa- 
tions of  the  Synoptical  tradition,  becomes  the 
sole  and  sure  and  sufficient  foundation  of  the 
Christian  faith.  "Other  foundation  can  no 
man  lay  than  that  is  laid,  which  is  Jesus 
Christ."     He  is  the  Way,  the  Truth,  and  the 

Life. 

III.    Christian  Experience. 

The  third  and  final  foundation  of  the  faith 
to  which  I  would  invite  attention  in  this  con- 
nection is  Christian  experience.  I  may  intro- 
duce the  subject  with  the  words  of  the  late 
Professor  W.  Robertson  Smith :  "The  per- 
suasion that  in  the  Bible  God  himself  speaks 
words  of  love  and  life  to  the  soul  is  the  es- 
sence of  the  Christian  conviction  as  to  the 
truth  and  autho'rity  of  Scripture.    .    .    .    The 


1 66  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

element  of  personal  conviction,  which  lifts 
faith  out  of  the  region  of  probable  evidence 
into  the  sphere  of  divine  certainty,  is  given 
only  by  the  Holy  Spirit  still  bearing  witness 
in  and  with  the  Word."  We  might  suspect 
that  these  were  the  words  of  an  historical 
skeptic  offering  us  stones  for  bread,  were  it 
not  that  the  "testimonium  Spiritus  Sancti/^ 
in  the  absence  of  all  critical  controversy,  had 
long  before  been  unanimously  appealed  to  by 
the  Reformers  as  the  supreme  and  final  war- 
rant of  Holy  Scripture;  and  were  it  not  fur- 
ther true  that  our  Methodist  doctrine  of  the 
witness  of  the  Spirit,  if  confined  to  the  single 
point  of  our  knowledge  that  we  are  the  chil- 
dren of  God,  is,  by  common  consent  of  com- 
petent theologians,  too  narrow.  "He  that  is 
spiritual  judgeth  all  things,"  and  John  Wes- 
ley, with  a  spirit  of  prophecy  in  this,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  lower  criticism  (as  indicated  by  a 
comparison  of  the  text  of  his  Notes  on  the 
New  Testament  with  that  of  the  Revisers  of 


And  His  Apostles  167 

1 88 1,  or  of  Westcott  and  Hort),  anticipated 
Schleiermacher  and  the  theolo'gians  of  our  own 
day  who  would  verify  the  entire  dogmatic  sys- 
tem by  analysis  of  the  implicit  presuppositions 
and  contents  of  Christian  experience. 

This  doctrine  is  no  city  of  refuge,  newly 
formed  by  theologians  for  who^m  the  histor- 
ical foundations  have  given  way.  On  the  con- 
trary, the  uniform,  definite,  and  permanent  el- 
ements of  Christian  experience,  in  the  convic- 
tion and  forgiveness  of  sin,  the  impartation  of 
life,  and  the  purification  of  the  nature,  with 
the  recognition  of  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit,  as 
the  Authors  and  Agents  of  this  great  salva- 
tion, constitute  a  scientifically  recognizable  and 
definable  phenomenon  of  age-long  and  world- 
wide occurrence.  "Eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear 
heard,  neither  have  entered  into  the  heart  of 
man,  the  things  which  God  hath  prepared  for 
them  that  love  him ;  but  God  hath  revealed 
them  unto  us  by  his  Spirit."  The  Spirit's  rev- 
elation of  spiritual  things  to  the  spiritual  man 


1 68  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

is  thus,  not  only  the  normal  privilege  but  the 
necessary  foundation  of  Christian  faith  and 
the  Christian  life.  This  truth,  which  first  rose 
on  my  soul  in  full-orbed  splendor  when,  as  a 
young  Methodist  preacher,  I  eagerly  perused 
your  Dr.  Burt  Pope's  "Compendium  of  Chris- 
tion  Theology,"  Methodism  has  a  special  com- 
mission to  preach  and  to  teach.  It  is  not  hers 
by  right  of  discovery,  for  it  has  belonged  to 
all  the  Christian  Churches  and  centuries.  It 
is  no  peculiar  depositum,  but  it  harmonizes 
with  the  genius  of  Methodism  in  its  special 
emphasis  upon  Christian  experience,  and  in 
its  assertion  o>f  that  large  liberty  wherewith 
Christ  makes  all  his  people  free.-     The  Spirit's 

'Professor  Friedrich  Loofs,  of  the  University  of 
Halle,  in  the  article  on  Methodism  in  the  new  edition 
of  the  Hauck-Herzog  "Realencyclopadie  fiir  protes- 
tantische  Theologie  und  Kirche,"  cites  with  approval 
this  address  on  "Biblical  Criticism  and  the  Christian 
Faith"  as  exponential  of  the  present  position  of  Metho- 
dism and  as  "placing  by  the  side  of  all  external  criti- 
cism the  testimonium  Spiritus  Sancti."  He  quotes 
freely  from  the  text  above. 


And  His  Apostles  169 

work  in  the  human  soul  is  in  perfect  con- 
formity with  the  Spirit's  work  in  the  Word; 
but  that  which  is  immediate  with  me  is  the 
guarantee  of  that  record  of  the  experience  of 
prophet  and  apostle,  immediate  with  them,  but 
conveyed  to  me  through  the  medium  of  a 
written  record. 

God  in  the  World,  God  in  the  Word,  God 
in  Christ,  God  in  the  Soul, — Creation,  Inspi- 
ration, Incarnation,  Regeneration, — these  are 
doubtless  mysteries  all,  containing  at  bottom 
a  residuum  of  the  inexplicable.  But  they  are 
parallel  mysteries,  each  carrying  with  it  a 
weight  of  analogical  evidence  for  the  truth 
of  all  the  others,  and  each  in  its  own  sphere 
an  example  of  that  mighty  working  whereby 
God  is  able  to  subdue  all  things  unto  himself. 
For  us  the  regenerating  act  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
is  indeed  private  and  personal;  but  for  that 
very  reason,  having  experienced  in  our  own 
hearts  this  solitary  union  of  the  divine  and 
human,   the   presence   of   God   in    Nature,    in 


170  The  Christianity  of  Christ 


Christ,  and  in  the  Bible,  while  still  mysterious, 
becomes  credible  and  certain. 

Thus  the  strands  (i)  of  historical  Chris- 
tianity, (2)  of  the  Divine  Christ,  and  (3)  of 
the  certainties  of  Christian  experience  unite  to 
form  a  threefold  cord  which  cannot  easily  be 
broken.  The  time  for  readjustment  to  the 
main  conclusions  of  historical  criticism  has  al- 
most fully  come.  We  are  not  called  upon,  in- 
deed, for  a  final  judgment  upon  them  all; 
many  things  remain  in  doubt;  some,  from  the 
insufficiency  of  the  materials  at  command,  will 
probably  always  remain  in  doubt.  But  the 
main  problems,  such  as  those  of  the  Hexa- 
teuch  and  of  Isaiah,  appear  to  have  been  sat- 
isfactorily solved,  and,  amid  considerable  dif- 
ferences on  details,  there  is  essential  agree- 
ment among  the  greater  critics  as  to  methods, 
grounds,  and  results.  So  far  as  I  can  see, 
there  is  no  reason  to  anticipate  such  a  reaction 
from,  and  repudiation  of,  the  historical  crit- 
icism of  the  Old  Testament,  as  befell  the  Tii- 


And  His  Apostles  171 

bingen  criticism  of  the  New ;  for  that  criticism 
was  essentially  an  attempt  to  rewrite  history 
on  the  basis  of  Hegelian  a  priori  philosophy. 
There  is  nothing  common  to  these  two  schools 
and  epochs  of  criticism,  and  it  is  unsafe  to  the 
last  degree  to  argue  from  the  fate  which  over- 
took one  to  a  kindred  overthrow  which  must 
speedily  befall  the  other. 

No';  let  us  not  fight  as  those  who  beat 
the  air.  Rather,  possessing  the  precious  pearl 
and  imperishable  treasure  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven,  sitting  at  the  feet  of  the  incompar- 
able Teacher,  the  Eternal  Divine  Word  In- 
carnate, and  being  guided  by  the  Spirit  of 
the  Father  and  of  the  Son  into  all  the  truth, 
let  us  hold  fast  the  profession  of  our  faith 
without  wavering,  receiving  the  kingdom  which 
cannot  be  moved,  even  though  this  same  pro- 
fession carries  with  it  the  removal  of  those 
things  that  are  shaken,  as  of  things  that  are 
made,  that  those  tilings  which  cannot  be  shak- 
en may  remain. 


172  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

Note. 
It  may  not  be  improper  to  add  that  the  fore- 
going essay  was  confined  to  twenty  minutes' 
reading  before  the  Third  Ecumenical  Metho- 
dist Conference,  and  was  written  during  the 
voyage  across  the  Atlantic.  It  was  my  inten- 
tion to  revise  and  enlarge  the  whole  for  publi- 
cation here;  but,  as  the  paper  has  been  several 
times  printed  and  is,  in  a  sense,  no  longer  my 
property,  I  have,  on  second  thought,  confined 
the  revision  to  cutting  out  one  or  two  sen- 
tences and  the  insertion  of  as  many  more.  I 
was  followed  by  the  Rev.  Marshall  Randies, 
D.D.,  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church,  in 
a  ten  minutes'  address  on  "Recent  Corrobora- 
tions of  the  Scripture  Narratives,"  and  by 
Chancellor  D.  S.  Stephens,  D.D.,  of  the  Meth- 
odist Protestant  Church,  in  an  address  of  the 
same  length  on  ''The  Appeal  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament to  the  Life  and  Conscience  of  To-day." 
Whereupon,  the  floor  was  first  secured  by  the 
Rev.  W.  T.  Davison,  M.A.,  D.D.,  then  Presi- 


And  His  Apostles  i73 


dent  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Conference,  and 
next  by  the  Rev.  Joseph  Agar  Beet,  D.D.,  who 
spoke  five  minutes  each.  My  apology  for  the 
insertion  of  their  remarks  must  be  found  in 
the  fact  that  they  enable  the  reader  to  judge 
how  far  my  very  brief  and  imperfect  paper, 
as  commented  upon  by  these  able  scholars,  may 
be  accepted  as  representing,  according  to  Pro- 
fessor LoO'fs's  use  of  it,  the  general  position  of 
Methodism,  in  the  Eastern  no  less  than  the 
Western  Section  of  the  Ecumenical  Confer- 
ence. The  Methodist  Recorder  for  Septem- 
ber 9,  1 90 1,  under  the  headlines,  "A  Brief  but 
Important  Conversation,"  "The  Doctors  do  not 
Differ,"  thus  reproduces 

Dr.  Davison's  Remarks. 

"Mr.  President  and  Brethren,  I  feel  quite 
unequal  to  making  a  five  minutes'  speech  upon 
this  great  subject,  but  I  have  risen  in  order  to 
say  one  or  two  things  w^hich  I  think  should 
be  said  at  this  time.     The  first  is  to  bear  my 


174  ^^^^  Chrisfiainty  of  Christ 

humble  testimony  as  a  representative  on  the 
Eastern  side  to  the  remarkably  able  paper  of 
Dr.  Tigert  to  which  we  have  had  the  oppor- 
tunity of  listening.  (Applause.)  I  will  not 
try  at  this  moment  to  characterize  that  timely 
and  able  and  helpful  and  suggestive  produc- 
tion. I  am  quite  sure  that  when  we  come  to 
read  it  carefully  we  shall  find  how  much  it 
contains.  We  had  some  idea  as  the  paper  was 
somew^hat  rapidly  read,  but  it  needs  to  be 
much  more  carefully  read  in  order  to  be  ap- 
preciated. Another  thing  which  I  wanted  to 
try  to  say,  if  I  could,  in  a  minute  and  a  half  is 
this,  that  God  is  trying  to  teach  his  Church, 
I  believe,  at  this  hour  by  means  of  historical 
and  literary  criticism  as  he  has  taught  and 
guided  his  Church  by  other  means  outside  the 
Church  in  the  course  of  past  ages.  We  often 
hear  the  phrase  about  more  light  breaking  out 
of  the  Holy  Word,  and  it  is  true  that  we  shall 
continually  find  more  and  more  to  study  in 
the  Book  itself.     But  God  teaches  us  by  light 


And  His  Apostles  175 

from  outside  shining  upon  the  Word,  and  I 
believe  that  we  have  learned  a  great  deal  from 
the  relation  between  Scripture  and  pure  sci- 
ence, and  that  we  have  learned  a  great  deal, 
or  we  might  have  learned  a  great  deal,  fiT>m 
the  relation  between  scriptural  teaching  and 
social  theories,  and  that  God  has  intended  to 
teach  his  Church  by  means  of  these  move- 
ments round  about  us,  and  I  hope  that  we 
have  had  grace  to  learn  some  lessons.  I  be- 
lieve that  with  regard  to  the  subject  of  the 
historical  and  literary  criticism  and  examina- 
tion of  the  Bible  as  a  record  which  is  now 
proceeding  God  has  many  things  to  teach  us. 
Some  of  them  we  have  already  learned — that 
human  faith  as  such  is  an  amalgam,  and  that 
we  have  to  find  out  by  a  process  of  trial  how 
much  of  that  is  human  and  how  much  divine. 
When  we  examine  the  historical  criticism  of 
the  Old  Testament,  and  the  historical  criticism 
of  the  New  Testament,  which  is  now  causing 
so  much  attention,  we  shall  not  find  it  a  dif- 


176  1  he  Christianity  of  Christ 

ficult  thing  to  separate  between  those  elements 
which  are  transitory  and  those  which  are  per- 
manent. I  beheve  that  Dr.  Tigert  has  led  us 
very  largely  upon  the  right  lines  in  those  two 
matters.  I  do  not  myself  think  that  we  should 
be  too  anxious  about  confirmations  of  the 
accuracy  of  the  Scripture  history  in  all  de- 
tails w^hether  from  archaeology  or  from  other 
sources.  We  welcome  them.  I  do  not  think 
that  w^e  need  to  be  anxious  about  the  matter, 
or  to  put  out  anxious  hands  to  catch  hold  of 
every  possible  confirmation  and  dwell  upon 
it,  any  more  than  we  need  fear  on  the  other 
side  here  and  there  a  discrepancy.  Rather  I 
believe  that  attention  is  being  drawn  to  the 
spiritual  character  of  that  Book  which  offers 
us  the  ultimate  ground  of  appeal,  and  the 
authoritative  rule  of  faith  and  practice — the 
character  of  it,  the  spiritual  power  of  it,  and 
the  relation  between  the  Bible  and  the  Church, 
and  between  the  Bible  and  Christian  con- 
sciousness.      All     these     matters     are     being 


And  His  Apostles  177 


brought  out,  I  believe,  more  clearly  than  they 
ever  have  been  before,  on  account  of  the  his- 
torical and  literary  criticism  to  which  the  Bible 
has  been  subjected  in  our  generation.  There 
is  only  one  other  thing  v^hich  I  wanted  to  say, 
and  it  is  this,  that  as  we  meet  from  both  sides 
of  the  Atlantic  I  hope  that  we  shall  cooper- 
ate. I  hope  that  those  interested  in  topics 
of  this  kind  will  cooperate  in  the  defense  of 
our  faith.  I  dare  not  speak  for  others — and 
yet  I  think  I  may;  but  we  upon  our  side  wel- 
come the  cooperation  of  scholars  and  Bible 
students  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic  as 
represented  by  Dr.  Tigert  and  many  more. 
I  hope  that  this  Ecumenical  Conference  will  not 
pass  away  without,  in  some  fashion  or  anoth- 
er, so  bringing  us  nearer  together  that  in  the 
next  decade,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  more 
good  work  may  be  done  for  biblical  scholar- 
ship than  ever  has  been  done  in  the  past." 

Then  follows  the  address  of  the  Rev,  Dr.  J. 
A.  Beet,  the  distinguished  commentator,  then 
12 


178  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

professor  in  the  Richmond  Theological  College 
of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 

Dr.  Beet's  Address. 

*'I  wish  to  express  my  strong  agreement 
with  the  admirable  paper  which  we  have  just 
had  from  Dr.  Tigert ;  but  I  wish  to  supplement 
it  by  a  few  remarks  which  I  think  ought  to  be 
made  in  this  Conference.  If  we  call  attention 
to  recent  corroborations  of  the  scriptural  nar- 
rative, we  are  bound  to  admit  that  in  some 
cases  recent  research  has,  in  some  small  de- 
tails, contradicted  that  narrative,  and  has  gone 
far  toward  disproving  its  absolute  verbal  ac- 
curacy. Nay,  more.  Recent  and  careful  study 
of  the  Bible  has  compelled  us  to  modify  a 
theory  of  inspiration  held  by  our  fathers  in 
the  middle  decades  of  the  last  century.  Not 
that  we  have  changed  our  doctrines.  We  hold 
firmly  and  unanimously  the  gospel  which  Wes- 
ley preached,  the  glad  tidings  of  salvation 
which  kindled  the  flame  of  the  Methodist  Re- 


And  His  Apostles  179 

vival.  Some  one  said  the  other  day  that  Meth- 
odists were  unanimous  in  holding  fast  the 
teaching  of  Wesley.  He  might  have  gone 
further  and  said  that  wherever  to-day,  in 
the  Anglo-American  race,  there  is  aggressive 
evangelism,  it  is  inspired  by  the  same  teach- 
ing. The  theology  of  Wesley  is  the  saving 
faith  of  the  millions  who  speak  the  English 
language.  But  some  sixty  years  ago,  good 
men,  in  their  wish  to  pay  honor  to  the  Book  of 
God,  propounded  a  theory  of  its  origin  and 
inspiration,  derived  not  from  study  of  the  Bi- 
ble, but  from  a  priori  reasoning  about  it,  a 
theory  which  went  far  beyond  the  evidence. 
From  the  untenable  position  then  taken  up  we 
have  retreated  to  an  impregnable  position  by 
careful  study  of  the  Bible  itself.  Such  retreat 
has  saved  many  an  army.  It  is  our  only  safety. 
We  must  ask  you  to  have  patience  with  bib- 
lical scholarship.  It  has  done  much  for  the 
spiritual  life  of  the  servants  of  Christ.  It  has 
given  to  us  a  purer  text  of  the  Bible  itself 


i8o  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

and  a  more  accurate  knowledge  of  the  lan- 
guages in  which  it  was  written,  and  has  thus 
brought  us  nearer  to  the  still  small  voice  which 
speaks  therein.  It  has  given  to  us  a  more  in- 
telligible Bible,  and  the  Bible  thus  interpreted 
is  the  only  safe  theological  text-book.  But  I 
cannot  deny  that  not  a  few  able  biblical  schol- 
ars reject  all  the  distinctive  elements  of  the 
gospel  of  Christ.  These  men,  in  spite  of  many 
services  in  the  details  of  biblical  scholarship, 
we  must  meet  with  resolute  opposition.  But 
in  our  opposition  we  must  discriminate.  If 
we  shut  our  eyes  and  strike  out  right  and  left 
we  shall  strike  our  friends,  mistaking  them  for 
foes.  For  instance,  some  scholars  deny,  simply 
because  it  conflicts  with  their  theory  of  the 
universe,  the  possibility  of  a  dead  man's  re- 
turn to  life,  and  therefore  refuse  to  discuss 
the  abundant  and  overwhelming  evidence  that 
Christ  rose  from  the  dead.  The  dogmatism 
of  rationalists  is  no  reason  why  we  should  re- 
vile a  man  because  after  careful  study  he  does 


And  His  Apostles  i8i 

not  think  that  the  last  twenty-six  chapters  of 
the  book  of  Isaiah  come  from  the  same  pen  as 
do  the  earher  chapters.  After  all,  questions 
of  date  and  authorship  must  be  left  to  those 
who  have  made  them  their  special  study.  Such 
questions  we  cannot  settle  by  appealing  either 
to  the  tradition  of  the  Church  or  to  our  own 
religious  experience." 


APPENDIX 


PFLEIDERER'S  "EARLY  CHRISTIAN 
CONCEPTION  OF  CHRIST"^ 

I  MUST  be  pardoned  for  saying  flatly  that  I 
cannot  understand  how  Professor  Pfleiderer 
could  have  written  such  a  book  as  this  unless 
he  had  first  forgotten  all  the  deeper  teachings 
of  the  New  Testament  about  Christ.  The 
learned  occupant  of  the  chair  of  theology  in 
Berlin  University  is  a  mythologist  pure  and 
simple.  Much  learning  has  certainly  made 
him  mad.  The  reflection  that  has  been  run- 
ning through  my  mind  in  reading  this  little 
volume  is  one  of  satisfaction  that  its  pages 
will  never  be  perused  by  the  common,  blatant 

^"The  Early  Christian  Conception  of  Christ :  Its  Sig- 
nificance and  Value  in  the  History  of  Religion."  Ex- 
panded from  a  Lecture  delivered  before  the  International 
Theological  Congress  at  Amsterdam,  September,  1903. 
By  Otto  Pfleiderer,  Professor  of  Theology  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Berlin.  New  York:  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons. 
London:  Williams  and  Norgate.    1905.    i2mo;  pp.  170. 

('85) 


1 86  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

infidel  of  the  street.  He  would  find  here  more 
dynamite  to  be  exploded  under  the  walls  of 
Christianity  than  could  be  supplied  by  a  whole 
generation  of  Ingersolls.  Professor  Pfleiderer 
repudiates  from  his  first  page  to  his  last  the 
historical  foundations  of  the  supernatural  and 
divine  elements  in  Christianity.  While  de- 
clining to  assert  historical  connection  between 
the  heathen  and  the  Christian  myths,  both 
alike  are  set  aside  as  the  baseless  fabric  of  a 
dream.  Historical  Christianity  having  been 
ignored  by  a  process  of  criticism  that  is  as 
shallow  as  it  is  false,  the  author  attempts  to 
give  a  purely  ideal  worth  to  the  Christian 
myths  which  is  of  more  value  than  the  original 
historical  content.  If  Professor  Pfleiderer 
really  believes  that  the  historical  foundations 
of  Christianity  can  be  utterly  subverted,  and 
the  religion  itself  continue  an  eternal  fountain 
of  light  and  life  to  blind  and  perishing  men, 
he  is  capable  of  a  credulity  a  thousand-fold 
greater  than  that  of  a  believer  in  the  incarna- 


And  His  Apostles  187 

tion  and  the  resurrection.  In  his  concluding 
pages  the  author  tells  us  that  we  are  to  "free 
ourselves  from  the  fatal  ban  of  historicism/' 
that  we  are  to  "let  history  point  the  way  above 
history,"  that  "myth  and  rite  were  certainly 
the  most  suitable  forms  of  expression  for 
primitive  Christian  belief."  Is  this  David 
Strauss  come  to  life  again?  Is  it  possible  that 
historical  scholars  will  have  to  repeat  the  tre- 
mendous labor  of  killing  once  more  this  snake 
that  was  thought  to  be  dead  fifty  years  ago? 
Certain  it  is  that  Pfleiderer  seems  to  be  in  the 
stage  that  Strauss  reached  just  before  his  final 
plunge  over  the  precipice,  when  he  was  still 
crying  "All's  well."  A  moment  later  came  the 
despairing  confession,  "All  is  lost."  It  is  a 
shame  that  a  man  entertaining  views  destruc- 
tive of  the  very  foundations  of  Christianity 
should  be  occupying  the  chair  of  theology  in 
the  greatest  university  of  the  land  of  Luther. 
A  mature  theologian  may  read  Pfleiderer's 
book  without  damage — no  doubt  such  ought 


1 88  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

to  read  it.  But  it  has  been  many  a  day  since 
a  volume  has  passed  under  my  eye  from  which 
exhaled  a  more  deadly  infidelity  than  from  this. 
But,  after  all,  it  is  not  a  book  difficult  for 
the  historical  student  of  Christian  origins  to 
answer.  So  far  are  the  central  facts  and  doc- 
trines of  Christianity  from  being  capable  of 
a  mythical  explanation,  that  the  wonder  is 
that  so  little  of  that  world  of  demonism  and 
apocalyptic  fancy  into  which  Christianity  was 
born,  both  among  the  Jews  and  the  heathen, 
clung  to  the  New  Testament  record,  or  even 
as  barnacles  to  the  hull  of  the  great  ship  of 
Christianity  as  it  cleft  its  way  through  those 
dark  waters.  It  is  safe  to  say  that,  whatever 
may  still  linger  in  modern  Romanism,  there 
is  not  a  single  essential  fact,  doctrine,  or  prin- 
ciple of  Christianity,  as  held  and  taught  in 
the  purer  forms  of  Protestantism,  that  can  be 
shown  to  be  so  much  as  tainted  with  any  ele- 
ment of  Jewish  or  heathen  mythology.  Sim- 
ilarly, the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  in  the  early 


And  His  Apostles  189 

Church  subordinated  and  aboHshed  that  min- 
istry and  mediation  of  angels  to  which  the 
later  Jewish  theology  attached  so  much  im- 
portance. Outside  of  Romanism,  so  far  as  I 
am  aware,  there  is  no  survival  of  that  Jewish 
angelology  against  which  the  author  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  aimed  his  polemic.  The 
Jewish  theology  may  have  taught  that  the 
Archangel  Michael  was  the  guardian  and  heav- 
enly representative  of  the  nation,  and  it  may 
be  possible  to  find  traces  of  this  idea  in  that 
most  mysterious  of  all  the  New  Testament 
books,  the  Apocalypse;  but  for  all  Protestant 
Christians  Jesus  Christ  is  the  only  Apostle  and 
High  Priest  of  our  profession,  and  to  no  other 
being,  angel  or  saint,  do  Protestants  look  for 
heavenly  Intercession.  It  is  no  doubt  true  that 
in  the  extra-canonical  literature  of  the  sub- 
apostolic  age  may  be  found  a  virtual  identifi- 
cation of  the  Archangel  Michael  and  Jesus 
Christ,  but  this  is  the  very  literature  which  the 
Christian  consciousness  of  that  age  refused  a 


190  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

place  in  the  canon  of  the  New  Testament.    We 
are  no  doubt  beginning  to  understand  in  our 
day  better  than  ever  before  the  steps  of  the 
emergence  of  Christianity  from  the  status  of 
a  Jewish   sect  to  that  of   the   early   Catholic 
Church.     The  extra-canonical  and  apocalyptic 
literature,  much  of  which  had  wide  circulation 
in  some  Christian  circles,  is  beginning  to  im- 
press us  with  the  view  that  much  ignorance  and 
superstition,  on  the  part  of  some  of  the  earliest 
converts  to  Christianity,  was  compatible  with 
the  reality  of  Christian  faith  and  life.     One 
needs   to   travel   only   to   Mexico   and    South 
America  on  this  continent,  and  to  Spain  and 
Italy  on  the  other,  among  the  debased  Romish 
populations,  to  be  satisfied  that  what  was  true 
in  the  first  and  second  centuries  is  still  true  in 
the  nineteenth  and  twentieth.     But,  on  this  ac- 
count, to  attempt  to  rewrite  the  history  of  the 
Christian   origins,   as    Pfleiderer   and   Wernle 
have  done,   on  the  hypothesis  that  these  ex- 
crescent superstitions  and  mythologies  explain 


And  His  Apostles  191 

everything,  is  unhistorical  and  preposterous. 
These  things  were  never  at  home  in  Chris- 
tianity and,  even  if  they  were,  which  is,  of 
course,  the  contention  of  the  mythologists,  the 
fact  that  the  vigorous  hfe  of  the  system  threw 
them  off  is  sufficient  proof  that  something  else 
dwelt  in  it  from  the  beginning. 

The  truth  is  that  the  novelty  of  these  new 
apocalyptic  studies  has  very  much  exaggerated 
their  importance.  It  is  a  long  road  that  the  the- 
ology of  the  next  generation  has  to  travel,  but  I 
do  not  doubt  its  ultimate  triumph  even  with  such 
traitors  as  Pfleiderer  and  Wernle  in  the  camp. 
The  whole  Old  Testament  Messianism  has  to  be 
studied  exhaustively  in  the  historical  spirit.  A 
fresh  historical  conception  of  revelation  and  its 
method  has  to  be  worked  out  and  firmly  se- 
cured. The  Messianism  of  the  New  Testament 
has  to  be  studied  afresh  in  the  light  of  these 
results.  Instead  of  beginning  at  the  periphery, 
as  Pfleiderer  now  does,  all  the  data  at  our  com- 
mand must  be  used  for  probing  the  self-con- 


192  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

sciousness  of  Jesus  to  its  depths.  Then  again 
shall  a  great  light  arise  in  the  midst  of  dense 
theological  darkness  to  enlighten  the  nations — 
even  the  Germans.  Christ  will  once  more  prove 
himself  the  center  and  substance  of  his  reli- 
gion. The  Church  has  nothing  to  fear  while 
the  incomparable  records  of  his  life  and  teach- 
ings are  read  every  Sunday  from  her  pulpits. 
It  is  no  doubt  true,  that  for  purposes  of  the- 
ology too  abstract  a  view  has  been  taken  of  the 
early  history  of  Christianity.  Christianity  was 
far  from  being  the  only  thing  in  the  world  of 
the  first  century  into  which  it  was  born;  nor 
was  the  New  Testament  the  only  professedly 
Christian  literature  that  circulated  widely  in 
the  Church  before  the  consolidation  of  the 
canon.  As  has  been  intimated  above,  these 
things  are  beginning  to  be  better  known  in  our 
day  than  ever  before.  But  we  are  still  in  the 
alphabet  of  these  investigations.  Professor 
Charles  is  very  generally  esteemed  the  first  au- 
thority, for  example,  as  the  editor  of  the  texts 


And  His  Apostles  193 

of  Jewish  apocalypses,  such  as  that  of  Enoch, 
cited  in  the  Epistle  of  Jude.  Yet  we  do  not 
travel  far  among  the  critics,  before  we  find  the 
suspicion  expressed  that  Charles  is  all  wrong 
^in  some  of  his  fundamental  principles  of  ar- 
rangement and  interpretation.  Certainly  it  is 
altogether  too  early  in  the  day  for  such  icono- 
clasts and, — though  it  seem  overbold,  we  ven- 
ture to  add, — sciolists  as  Pfleiderer  and  Wernle 
to  begin  rewriting  the  history  of  Christianity 
from  the  assumption  that  the  consciousness 
of  Jesus  Christ  was  submerged  in  these  Jew- 
ish speculations,  an  insignificant  fragment  of 
which  barely  shows  above  the  surface  of  the 
New  Testament  in  the  obscure  Epistle  of  Jude. 
I  am  not  so  presumptuous  as  to  put  forward 
these  reflections  as  if  they  ought  to  be  consid- 
ered a  detailed,  historical  reply  to  Pfleiderer. 
Better  scholarship  and  larger  materials  than 
I  possess  will  be  needed  for  this  task.  But  I 
am  thoroughly  convinced  that  I  have  given 
no  unjust, — nay,  no  ungenerous, — account  of 
13 


194  ^^^^  CJirisfianity  of  Christ 

his  position;  nor  have  I  exaggerated  the  plain 
historical  considerations  which  render  his  po- 
sition untenable.  It  is,  indeed,  a  deep  grief 
that  professedly  Christian  theologians  should, 
in  some  instances,  prove  the  most  dangerous 
foes  of  the  faith.  But,  from  the  beginning,  it 
has  been  so,  and  it  will  probably  continue  so  to 
the  end. 

When  Pfleiderer  exhorts  us  to  ''let  his- 
tory point  the  way  above  history,"  he  is 
really  demanding  that  Christianity  shall 
breathe  in  a  vacuum.  The  truth  is  that  all 
theological  study  is  now  resolving  itself  into 
history — none  more  so  than  exegesis  and  dog- 
ma. Historical  theology  has  practically  the 
whole  field  to  itself.  If  Christianity  is  routed 
on  the  field  of  history,  it  can  never  again  set 
its  scattered  forces  in  battle  array.  Yet  this  is 
just  what  Pfleiderer  proposes  to  concede  in  the 
outset, — namely,  that  Christianity  has  no  secure 
intrenchments  on  the  historical  field, — and  to 
make  this  fatal  concession  the  principle  of  a 


And  His  Apostles*  195 

new  apologetic  which  is  to  win  permanent 
peace  and  final  victory.  I  repeat  with  the 
earnestness  of  the  most  solemn  conviction  that 
no  more  deadly  foe  of  the  faith  has  pitched  his 
tent  on  the  field  of  open  and  declared  infidelity. 
As  relentless  war  must  be  declared  against  such 
apologists  as  against  the  external  enemy.  Such 
wholesale  denial,  on  alleged  historical  grounds, 
of  the  very  forces  which  make  history  is 
reached  not  by  criticism,  but  by  hypercriticism 
or,  as  that  name  has  been  repudiated,  by 
pseudo-criticism.  An  historical  science  which 
makes  of  the  progress  of  humanity  a  series  of 
mistakes  bound  up  in  one  huge  blunder  is  as 
impossible  as  a  scientific  explanation  of  the 
world  which  starts  with  the  denial  of  intelli- 
gence and  purpose.  Both  end  in  the  blind  alley 
of  atheism. 


LOISY'S  "THE  GOSPEL  AND  THE 
CHURCH/'i 

M.  Loisy's  contention  may  be  very  well  repre- 
sented by  a  paragraph  at  the  beginning  of  the 
third  chapter  of  his  section  on  the  Church: 
'Thus  to  reproach  the  Catholic  Church  for  the 
development  of  her  constitution  is  to  reproach 
her  for  having  chosen  to  live,  and  that,  more- 
over, when  her  life  was  indispensable  to  the 
preservation  of  the  gospel  itself.  There  is  no- 
where in  her  history  any  gap  in  continuity,  or 
the  absolute  creation  of  a  new  system:  every 
step  is  a  deduction  from  the  preceding,  so  that 
we  can  proceed  from  the  actual  constitution  of 
the  Papacy  to  the  Evangelical  Society  around 
Jesus,  different  as  they  are  from  one  another, 
without    meeting    any    violent    revolution    to 

^'The  Gospel  and  the  Church."  By  Alfred  Loisy. 
Translated  by  Christopher  Home.  New  York :  Charles 
Scribner's  Sons.     1904.     i2mo;  pp.  vi,  277. 

(196) 


And  His  Apostles  197 

change  the  government  of  the  Christian  com- 
munity. At  the  same  time  every  advance  is 
explained  by  a  necessity  of  fact  accompanied  by 
logical  necessities,  so  that  the  historian  cannot 
say  that  the  total  extent  of  the  movement  is 
outside  the  gospel.  The  fact  is,  it  proceeds 
from  it  and  continues  it." 

This  is  the  antipodes  of  Herr  Harnack's  an- 
nouncement that  "God  and  the  soul,  the  soul 
and  its  God,  are  the  whole  contents  of  the 
gospel. *'  Both  positions  are  false.  Harnack's 
doctrine  is  an  arbitrary  and  unhistorical  limita- 
tion of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  under  the  influ- 
ence of  a  self-chosen  canon  of  the  absolute  and 
relative  in  the  gospel.  His  ov^n  Person  and 
mediation  are  an  essential  part  of  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  which  Harnack  seeks  thus  to  exclude. 
Loisy  is  right  enough  in  his  negative  criticism, 
but  wrong  in  his  positive  historical  construction. 
We  can  well  understand  how  a  man  of  schol- 
arship and  intelligence,  finding  himself  en- 
meshed in  the  actual  Roman  Church  by  his 


ipS  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

priesth(X>d  in  it,  might  sophisticate  his  mind 
with  some  such  Hne  of  thought  as  that  stated 
above.  There  are  crises,  and  even  periods,  in 
the  history  of  mediaeval  Christianity  when  it 
has  a  relative  justification.  But  when  one  with 
adequate  historical  and  dogmatic  knowledge 
undertakes  the  detailed  application  of  the  prin- 
ciple asserted  to  the  doctrine,  government,  and 
worship  of  the  Roman  Church,  it  breaks  down 
in  a  thousand  particulars.  That  form  of  Chris- 
tianity, in  comparison  with  its  purer  Protestant 
embodiments,  has  the  scantiest  claim  to  inclu- 
sion in  the  Catholic  Church.  It  is  hopeful  to 
see  a  Roman  theologian  alive  to  such  questions 
as  have  agitated  the  mind  of  M.  Loisy  and  will- 
ing to  discuss  them,  but  his  limitations  are  pain- 
ful and  his  embarrassments  evident.  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  believe  in  the  intellectual  honesty  of  a 
man  who  could  defend  the  monstrous  pen^er- 
sion  of  the  mass  in  a  paragraph  like  this : 

''The  development  of  the  Eucharist  has  been 
mainly  theological  and  liturgical.  At  bottom  the 


And  His  Apostles  199 

belief  and  the  rite  have  no  more  changed  than 
have  the  behef  in  baptism  and  its  rite.  The 
Supper  of  the  early  Christians  was  a  memorial 
of  the  Passion  and  an  anticipation  of  that  festi- 
val of  the  Messiah  whereat  Jesus  was  present. 
There  is  no  very  marked  difference  between  the 
Pauline  conception  of  the  Eucharist  and  the 
idea  that  simple  Christians  [in  the  Roman 
Church,  he  means]  have  of  it  to-day,  those  who 
are  strangers  to  the  speculations  of  theology, 
who  believe  that  they  enter  into  real  communion 
with  God  in  Christ  by  taking  the  consecrated 
bread  [as  if  the  adoration  of  the  host,  familiar 
to  every  Romanist,  could  possibly  be  described 
in  these  terms] .  The  simple  blessing  and  dis- 
tribution of  wine,  detached  from  the  love  feast, 
surrounded  by  readings  and  prayers  and  hymns, 
became  the  offering  of  the  mass.  Since  the 
death  of  Jesus  was  conceived  as  a  sacrifice,  the 
act  commemorating  this  death  naturally  par- 
took of  the  same  character.  The  liturgical 
form  helped  to  impart  the  same  thing,  b}^  the 


200  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

real  offering  of  the  bread  and  wine,  and  the 
participation  of  all  the  faithful  in  the  sanctified 
food,  as  in  the  sacrifices  of  the  ancients.  Thence 
came  the  idea  of  a  commemorative  sacrifice, 
which  simply  perpetuated  that  of  the  Cross, 
took  nothing  from  its  significance  or  its  merit, 
and  satisfied  all  the  aims  included  in  the  com- 
mon prayer  of  the  Church,  interests  spiritual 
and  temporal,  the  salvation  of  the  living  and 
the  dead.  .  .  .  The  evolution  of  the  Eu- 
charist ended  in  private  masses  for  the  priests, 
and  communions  of  piety  for  the  faithful." 

That  the  mass  as  practiced  in  the  Roman 
Church  takes  nothing  from  its  significance  and 
merit  of  the  sacrifice  of  the  Cross  is  simply 
false.  When  the  masses  for  the  repose  of  the 
souls  of  the  departed  are  paid  for  by  the  living, 
it  Is  because  they  are  taught  to  believe  that 
something  more  than  the  already  accomplished 
passion  of  the  Saviour  is  necessary,  and  that 
the  priest  is  competent  to  repeat  on  the  altar 
a  sacrifice  to  God  which  will  bring  about  the 


And  His  Apostles  201 

desired  release  of  souls  from  purgatory.  The 
rest  of  Loisy's  appeal  to  history  in  this  matter 
may  be  accepted  as  a  fair  imitation  of  the 
truth;  but  after  all  it  is  an  account  of  the  evolu- 
tion of  deadly  error  and  falsehood.  It  came 
about,  no  doubt,  after  some  such  fashion  as  he 
has  described;  nevertheless,  the  Eucharist  of 
the  Gospels  and  the  Romish  mass  are  separated 
by  the  polar  diameter.  It  is  a  reactionary  and 
spurious  "catholicity,"  false  tO'  the  principles  of 
the  Protestant  Reformation,  which  leads  the 
priestlings  and  apists  of  the  English  Church  to 
smuggle  in  their  poor  imitations,  under  cover  of 
an  ambigious  or  antiquated  rubric,  against  the 
express  and  unmistakable  declarations  of  the 
Articles  of  Religion.  The  wretched  taste  of  it 
all  struck  such  an  aesthetic  genius  as  Matthew 
Arnold  when  he  witnessed  the  new-fangled  imi- 
tation in  the  English  Church;  but  deeper  than 
all  questions  of  taste  is  the  sacrifice  of  the  truth 
for  which  Protestant  England  and  her  Prot- 
estant Church  stand.     The  battles  of  the  Ref- 


202  The  Christianity  of  Christ 

ormation  may  have  to  be  fought  again ;  but  it 
is  no  breach  of  Christian  charity  to  fight  for 
the  truth — to  contend  earnestly  for  the  faith 
once  for  all  delivered  to  the  saints. 

For  the  rest,  the  attempt  of  Loisy  to  put  the 
worship  of  Christ  and  the  worship  of  saints 
on  the  same  level,  as  being  equally  foreign  to 
the  gospel  and  equally  the  fruit  of  development, 
can  mislead  nobody.  In  this  book  we  have  an 
example  of  a  bright,  strong,  cultivated  mind, 
sensitive  to  the  currents  of  truth  that  are  blow- 
ing through  the  modern  world,  but  hopeless- 
ly entangled  with  an  outworn  ecclesiasticism, 
struggling  to  justify  itself  in  an  indefensible 
position  of  which  it  has  become  at  least  par- 
tially conscious.  It  has  a  certain  theological 
value  as  a  criticism  of  the  opposite  extreme; 
but  its  chief  value  is  as  a  psychological  uncov- 
ering of  the  refuge  of  lies. 


INDEXES 


INDEX 

OF  AUTHORS  QUOTED  OR    REFERRED  TO 


Anselm,  33. 
Arnold,  Matthew,  27. 

BeetJ.  Agar,  47, 48, 1 78-181, 
Briggs,  C.  A.,  54. 
Brown,  W.  Adams,  4,  7. 
Bruce,  A.  B.,  48. 

Caird,  Edward,  6. 
Caird,  John,  6. 
Charles,  R.  H.,  193,  193. 
Clarke,  W.  N.,  19. 

Davidson,  A.  B.,  17. 
Davison,  W.  T.,  173-178. 
Delitzsch,  Friedrich,  7. 
Denney,  James,  25,  38. 
Driver,  S.  R.,  158. 

Ewald,  G.  H.  A.,  98. 

Fairbairn,  A.  M.,  6. 

Gilbert,  G.  H.,  31. 
Grotius,  Hugo,  33,  103. 

Hastings,  J.,  Dictionary  of 

the  Bible,  48. 
Haeckel,  Ernst,  6. 


Harnack,  Adolf,  4,  6,  7,  22, 

29,  111-113,  132,  133. 
Hase,  K.,  98,  99. 
Hegel,  G.  W.  F.,  7. 
Hermann,  W.,  6. 
Hilprecht,  H.  V.,  7. 
Holtzmann,  A.,  98. 
Hommel,  Fritz,  7,  159. 
Huxley,  T.  H.,  96. 

Julicher,  A.,   113,    114,   123, 
124,  125. 

Kaftan,  Julius,  6,  69. 
Kant,  Immanuel,  7. 
Kennedy,  H.  A   A.,  17. 
Keim,  K.  T.,  43,  44,  99,  103, 

140. 
Kuinoel,  C.  T.,  103. 

Leibnitz,  G.  W.,  7. 

Loisy,  Alfred,  4,  7,   13,  29, 

196-202. 
Locke,  John,  20. 
Loofs,  Friedrich,  168,  173. 
Lotze,  Hermann,  7. 

Mathews,  Shailer,  148. 

(205) 


2g6 


Index 


McCurdj,  J.  F.,  7,  158. 
Meyer,  H.  A.  W.,  46,  47,  loi, 
103,  104,  149. 

Newman,  J.  H.,  12, 

Orr,  James,  48. 

Pfleiderer,    Otto,    123,    128, 

129,  185-195. 
Plummer,  Alfred,  99,  105. 
Pope,  W.  Burt,  168. 

Rainy,  Robert,  114,  115. 
Randies,  Marshall,  172. 
Renan,  Ernest,  96. 
Ritschl,  Albrecht,  6,  69. 
Rogers,  R.  W.,  7,  158. 

Sanday,  W.,  35,  98. 
Sayce,  A.  H.,  7,  158,  159. 
Schleiermacher,   F.  D.    E., 
69,  167. 


Smith,  George  Adam,  162, 

163. 
Smith,  Goldwin,  6. 
Smith,  W.  Robertson,  165, 

166. 
Spencer,  Herbert,  96. 
Stephens,  D.  S.,  172. 
Stevens,  G.  B.,  36. 
Strauss,  D.  F.,  96,  187. 

Thayer,  J.  H,  33- 

Weiss,  Bernhard,  38. 
Weizsacker,  K.,  98. 
Wendt,  H.  H„  31. 
Wernle,   Paul,    72,    81,    89, 
115,  116,  1 19-122,  123,  128, 

129,  132,  133,  140*  141-143. 

145,  191. 
Wesley,  John,  166. 
Westcott  and  Hort,  167. 


INDEX 

OF  SCRIPTURE  PASSAGES  QUOTED  OR 
EXPLAINED 


PAGE 

Deut.  viii.  3 77 

Psalm  xvi 17 

Psalm  xlix 17 

Psalm  Ixxiii 17 

Psalm  cxxxix 17 

Isaiah  ix.  6,  7 95 

Matt.  iv.  4 77 

Matt.  iv.  8 94 

Matt,  i V.  17 94 

Matt.  V.  13,  14 134 

Matt.  vii.  21-23 30 

Matt.  viii.  10-12 134 

Matt.  xi.  II 48 

Matt.  xi.  27 30 

Matt.  xi.   25-30 3 1,  97,98 

99,  100-105,  130 

Matt.  xii.  40 42 

Matt.  xvi.  13 139 

Matt.  xvi.  17 18 

Matt.  xvi.  21 139 

Matt.  XX.  28 33 

Matt.  xxi.  33-44 113-133 

Matt.  xxi.  41,  42 130 


PAGE 

Matt.  xxi.  44 62 

Matt.  xxvi.  28 34 

Matt,  xxvi,  39,  42,  44 77 

Matt.  xxvi.  61 41 

Matt,  xxvii.40 41 

Mark  x.  45 33 

Mark  xiv.  36. . .    77 

Mark  xiv.  58 41 

Mark  xv.  29,  30 41 

Luke  iv.  4 77 

Luke  x'.  17-20 loi 

Luke  X.  21-24. . .  ,30,  97,  98 
100,  101-104,  130 

Luke  XV.  1 1-32 26 

Luke  XX.  18 62 

Luke  xxii.  42 77 

Luke  xxiv.  39 40 

Luke  xxiv.  42,  43 40 

John  ii.  19 41 

John  iv.  33 71 

John  iv.  34 69,  71,  76,94 

John  V.  23.  ...    106 

John  X.  30 106 

(207) 


2o8 


Index 


PAGE 

John  xii.  45 106 

John  xii.  48 13 

John  xiv.  9 106 

John  xiv.  30 77 

John  XX.  27 41 

John  XX.  29 41 

John  xxi.  12-15 40 

Acts  ii.  24-36 38 

Acts  iii.  15,  21   38 

Acts  iv.  2 38 

Acts  x.  40,  41 39 

Acts  xiii.  30-37 38 

Acts  xvii.  18 38 

Acts  xviii.  18 136 

Rom.  iii.  24 25 

Rom.  iii.  25 35 

Rom.  V.8 36 

Rom.  xiv.  17 49 

I  Cor.  i.  30 25 

I  Cor.  ii.  2. . .    136 

I  Cor.  ii.  9,  10 19, 167 

I  Cor.  ii.  1 1 20 

I  Cor.  iii.  11 46-48,  147 

149,  165 


PAGE 

I  Cor.  XV.  3 147 

I  Cor.  XV.  5-8 40 

I  Cor.  XV.  12-20 43 

I  Cor.  XV.  24 97 

1  Cor.  xvi.  22 62 

2  Cor.  xi.  22-28 144 

2  Cor.  xiii.  14 21 

Gal.  '.  9 62 

Eph.  i.  7 25 

Phil.  ii.  5-11 118 

Col.  i.  14 25 

I  Thess.  i.  I 109 

I  Thess.  i.  2-5 no 

I  Thess.  i.  6 no 

I  Thess.  i.  9,  10 in 

Heb.  ii.   17 34 

Heb.  V.  7 80 

I  John  ii.  2 34 

I  John  i\".  8 24 

I  John  iv.  10 34»  35 

I  John  i v.   10,  II 50 

I  John  iv.  16 24 

I  John  iv.  19 50 


